


Conflict

by PhantomGrimalkin



Category: Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alliterative Boyfriends, Alternate Universe, Love Triangles, M/M, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, college age!Peter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-19 08:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomGrimalkin/pseuds/PhantomGrimalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We ran into each other, and he was interested in my work," Bruce replied, leaning back in his chair, "Admittedly, we ran into each other because he was able to hack your system to get access to your lab- but you have to admit, that does make him interesting, and give me reason to keep an eye on him."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had a friend who had this headcanon. We sadly haven't spoken in over a year, just drifted away, but it's kind of been in the back of my mind and I wanted to try my hand at it. If that friend does see it, I'd love to know what you think! :D  
> It's not solely based on the recent movieverse, but is heavily based on it. College age Peter because I'm more familiar with that and it honestly squicks me out a little less.... (I'm sorry D: I'm not against people who ship that, I enjoy the fics, it's just a little squicky to me)

It was a few months after the Chitauri attack before Steve moved into Stark Tower. It had long since been repaired, and Steve raised an eyebrow when he noticed that the sign stayed unfixed. Tony just grinned at him when he asked about it.

Not long after Steve moved back to New York there were a few attacks that required the Avengers to assemble again. Thor was there sometimes, they managed to get Hulk there a few times as well. Eventually Clint and Natasha decided they wouldn't mind having Stark Tower on their list of places to stay between missions. Eventually they started calling it the Avengers Tower jokingly, and then one day Tony decided to make it official. In typical form, he waited for the perfect timing to get the best publicity and irk Fury the most.

Bruce was the last one to move into the tower. That he didn't move in didn't surprise anyone, although Tony tried to convince him to stay every time. It was more of a surprise when they realized that he actually had moved in. It wasn't uncommon for him to stay at the tower for some time after helping the team with a mission, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before disappearing again, then one time he just didn't leave. It was two months before anyone noticed that he hadn't disappeared yet, and there was a silent agreement not to say anything. He spent most of his time alone in the lab, so there wasn't really a big difference to most of them. Tony would eargerly drag him to his own lab to do science, which resulted in fewer horrible disasters because Bruce demanded safety precautions before they started blowing things up, and no one had any complaints about that.

* * *

 It was late summer when Bruce walked into his lab to find someone else was already in there. He raised an eyebrow, mostly confused that Jarvis had not only allowed someone in but hadn't alerted anyone. Or at least hadn't alerted him. He looked the intruder over for a moment, as he hadn't been noticed because the man was busy looking into one of the microscopes set up. He was young, slightly messy brown hair and wearing what Bruce remembered considering 'business attire' during college, but later realized was more like business casual. His face was mostly obscured by the microscope, but what he saw looked unfamiliar.

Bruce frowned, then cleared his throat. The other man jumped slightly, nearly knocking the chair over but catching it before it fell. He turned around, a guilty look on his face, then smiled sheepishly upon seeing who it was.

“Good reflexes,” Bruce commented quietly.

“Thanks?” he replied with a laugh, running a hand through his hair, “Sorry, it's been awhile since anyone snuck up on me.”

“As it turns out, the lengths Mr. Stark went to to install doors that open silently come in handy when someone's broken into your lab,” Bruce replied with a slight smile.

“Broke into...? No, no, I didn't...” he unclipped the badge hanging from his coat and held it out, “I'm an intern.”

“Interns aren't allowed here, they shouldn't even have access,” he replied flatly. He would have liked to check the validity of the badge, but he honestly never bothered to find out what they looked like. It wasn't blatantly false, at the very least. “I believe you were informed that you weren't even allowed on this floor, Mr... Parker...?”

Parker shuffled slightly, reaffixing the badge, “Yeah, I know, sorry, Bruce.”

“How did you know my name?” he asked quietly, partly to himself as his mind ran down the possibilities. If there was a way that people could find information about him, he would need to know about it. His name wasn't on the door, and he was still publishing as R. B. Banner. The only people who knew him as Bruce were people who went to school with him and those close to him.

The intruder whinced slightly before recovering hastily, plastering on an overly casual grin, “Well, you know, giant green guy running around saving the city... you get curious.”

“Excuse me?” Bruce asked sharply, trying to stamp down the growing panic. There was no good reason for someone who knew he was the Hulk would break into his private lab. And the small number of people who knew he was the Hulk meant that there was no way the person could just be a casual fan. A few people in the press had managed to get pictures of him post-transformation, but most of them were grainy or at bad angles and there weren't even any rumors connecting him with the Hulk. The Avengers understood his desire for privacy, having his face plastered all over the press would make it hard to get around unnoticed, and have helped keep him away from the media. There had actually been a few times when the Avengers spoke with the press, and each time it was Hulk that showed up.

“...You're, uh, “secret identity” is still a secret, isn't it? This is just not my day,” Parker asked with another whince, “I'm really, really sorry... Look, I know I shouldn't be here, I really didn't mean anything bad by it, I just... I need to know more about radiation mutated genes and, well... You're the expert.”

“You're probably the worst spy I've ever seen,” Bruce said, shaking his head, “Let me guess, you have a perfectly innocent reason to need to know about that particular subject- and not just in terms of radiation poisoning, since I'm decidedly _not_ the expert on that.”

“Depends on your version of innocent, I guess,” he said quietly, rubbing his hand on his wrist, “It's not what you think, though...” When Bruce just responded by quirking an eyebrow, he took a deep breath and lifted his wrist up, shooting a string of webbing at the glass door.

Bruce jerked backwards at the movement from his wrist, eyes green as he readied himself to deal with whatever weapon this punk had managed to sneak in, and then he recognized it. He frowned, then turned to the young man who was staring at his shoes and fidgeting like a kid in the principal's office.

“You're...?” he asked quietly, walking over to the webbing and touching it. The texture and tension were both familiar, he'd pulled it off himself post-transformation enough to be sure he could recognize it.

“Yeah... I'd, uh, appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anyone...” he replied nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, “I don't want it to cause any problems for my Aunt...”

“So 'Peter Parker' is your real name, then?” Bruce asked with an amused smile, looking him over again with this knowledge. He recognized the voice now, and the body shape was right, he felt a bit foolish for not noticing anything sooner.

“I wasn't lying about being an intern,” he replied with a shrug, “I just had to hack a few things and steal a few passwords to get up here.”

“Why are you so interested in radiation, anyways?”

“Well, I _was_ bitten by a radioactive spider and figured that it might be useful to find out what that actually involves, y'know?” he offered with a lopsided grin.

“You were?” Bruce asked quietly.

“Yeah, I wasn't born crawling walls, y'know?”

“I didn't realize...”

“I don't exactly advertise it, a guy's gotta have some secrets,” he grinned, “You know what I mean.”

Bruce chuckled quietly, “Yeah, alright, I suppose I do.” He crossed his arms, “So don't you have some supervisor that's going to come looking for you?”

“Nah- I already finished for the day when I headed up. Besides,” Peter smirked, “some of the other interns are so nervous that they can't even remember whether you put in water or acid first- they've got their hands full.”

“Well then,” Bruce said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “I suppose I can't let a kid go running around with radiation in his blood without knowing anything about what it's doing.”

“Yeah, yeah, grandpa,” Peter laughed, rolling his eyes before smiling genuinely, “But, y'know, thanks. I appreciate you not just calling security on me, actually hearing me out.”

“You know what they say, irradiated superheroes have to stick together.”

* * *

Bruce had not been sure what to expect. He didn't have much experience with Spider-Man, who was still a vigilante so couldn't officially join the Avengers and only joined fights when he happened upon them or heard about it on time. Even the times he was there, he almost always left before or soon after Bruce transformed back. He also didn't have much experience with college students, it'd been a long time since he'd been one and even then most had been annoying, and couldn't help but expect the worst. With that pessimism, the time turned out to be surprisingly pleasant.  Peter was intellegent enough, he didn't have as many years of experience but he learned quickly and was an eager student. Bruce was slowly letting himself accept that it was okay to have company, that he was safe to be around people. Peter reminded him of Tony in many ways, he was sarcastic and witty, as well as a bit cocky, but he didn't have anywhere near the ego. It was a bit nice to be able to teach someone so eager to learn, Bruce had always wanted to become a professor.

After so long living alone, avoiding people and feeling like he couldn't trust himself, Bruce had suddenly found himself amonng people who knew what he was and didn't fear him. He found a team that Hulk was able to work with, and that was able to control him if need be. They weren't all comfortable around Bruce, though. Natasha still gave him a wide berth, and Steve kept giving him worried glances. Tony and Thor were the only ones completely comfortable around him, at least until Peter, who was either comfortable or amazing at hiding his concerns.

Due to meetings that Pepper refused to let him skip, it was a week after Bruce started working with Peter before Tony had a chance to poke his head in. By then they had already fallen into something of a pattern. Each day Bruce would meet him after his internship was over and they'd go to Bruce's lab together, order in dinner and discuss any results that had come in or what to do next while eating, and get to work.

It was sometime between ordering the food and it arriving that Tony showed up. He walked in, knocking on the door as he did, looking over the scene with crossed arms.

"Hey, Tony," Bruce said, looking up with a smile, he glanced over at Peter, "This is-"

"I know who he is," Tony interrupted, surveying Peter critically, "What I want to know is why one of my interns is bothering one of my best scientists."

"Tony..." Bruce said, raising an eyebrow, "You told me I was allowed to have people in the lab if I wanted."

"How do you even know him?" Tony asked, eyes still on Peter.

"Um," Peter said awkwardly, glancing at Bruce.

"Glad to know that we've still got the best and brightest, I'll have to have our requirements for interns re-evaluated," Tony remarked.

"We ran into each other, and he was interested in my work," Bruce replied, leaning back in his chair, "Admittedly, we ran into each other because he was able to hack your system to get access to your lab- but you have to admit, that does make him interesting, and give me reason to keep an eye on him."

"We'd met before," Peter added, "All of us, I mean, a few times."

"Well, you didn't meet _me_...." Bruce pointed out with a wink.

Tony ran a hand through his hair, "Okay, great, someone tell me what I'm missing."

Bruce looked at Peter, who nodded although his hands were fidgeting slightly. "Tony, this is Spider-Man. I'm helping him figure out his superpowers."

Tony stared at Bruce for a moment, half expecting him to declare it a joke. Eventually he smirked, "Well, I guess that answers the question of where those blood samples came from."

* * *

 "Hey, Bruce," Tony called across the Avenger's common area. Bruce glanced up from where he was making tea in the kitchen as Tony walked over to him. "You up for science today? I've got some upgrades to the Mark IX that I'd like you to..." He paused, noticing the look on his face, "What?"

"I'd love to..." Bruce said gently, "But I'm meeting Peter."

"But the internship's over," Tony said with a frown, mentally making sure he'd gotten the day right. He knew he had, though.

Since starting to work with that kid, Bruce had been unacceptably busy. Normally Tony wouldn't complain, his habit of getting so caught up in projects that he forgot to eat or sleep was infamous, but this got under his skin. It wasn't that Bruce had a pet project, because it was really _someone else's project_. And Bruce had always refused to let Tony work with him because his blood was too dangerous, then Tony finds out that this college brat was allowed to.

So Tony may have ended up counting down the days until it was over, and wishing that he could just cut it short.

"You do know he wasn't _my_ intern, right?" Bruce asked with a slight laugh.

"He might as well have been," he replied with a smirk, biting back his remark that _Bruce_ had been acting more like _Peter's_ intern. "Alright. Tomorrow, then? We can grab lunch while we do."

"Sounds great," Bruce agreed, "I'll see you then."


	2. Chapter 2

Peter looked down at the city from one of his favorite views on top of the skyscraper. He frowned slightly under his mask. Yesterday had been the last day of his internship, college started again in a week. By all rights he probably should have been celebrating, but he just wasn't in the mood.

It would be harder to justify working with Doctor Banner now that he didn't have an excuse to be in the tower most days. Most of the work left was letting machines run the samples and sorting out the data, which was something Peter really wasn't needed for. He didn't want it to end, though. He hadn't been able to work with a respected scientist like that since Doctor Connors and while that hadn't ended well, he still missed being treated like an equal rather than a lowly student.

It was also nice to be around someone who not only knew he was Spider-Man, but sort of understood what he was going through. Gwen had always been great, better than he could have ever hoped for, but she didn't actually know what it was like. And, before they had a chance to try dating again, she realized that she couldn't handle the uncertainty of being in a relationship with Spider-Man, not after going through it with her father.

He didn't blame her for that, they were still friends and he was still grateful for everything she did for him, but with Bruce... he actually felt  _normal_ again for once.

And now he was about to lose that. Bruce certainly seemed to think that the end of the internship meant they wouldn't be working together anymore, he said as much. It was all Peter could do to come up with a reason to see him again, something about going out for coffee to thank him. It was a weak excuse, but if Bruce realized he hadn't said anything.

His stomach squirmed at the thought of this afternoon. He wasn't sure what he was going to say or do. He wasn't even sure why it was so important that he try to keep in contact with the other man, but somehow it was.

Peter took a deep breath and shook his head, standing up and looking around. It had been a quiet day so far, but he could probably find someone causing trouble if he looked. If nothing else, swinging across the city always cleared his head. He could use that right now.

* * *

Bruce sighed into his tea cup and glanced at the clock. He was supposed to meet Peter outside the tower in about fifteen minutes, and was becoming increasingly more convinced that this was a bad idea. He was fairly certain that Peter had just felt obligated to make the offer after Bruce had helped him, and Bruce was so eager to grab onto any excuse to see the man again that he agreed without thinking.

That wasn't a good sign, he couldn't afford to react to anything like that. Especially not if it meant taking advantage of offers made only because of social protocol. Peter certainly had better things to do with his time, probably involving fighting crime  _without_ wiping out three city blocks.  
Bruce grimaced to himself and stood up, putting the cup in the sink before walking to the elevator.

As the doors started to close, he heard someone shout "Hold that!" and automatically hit the 'door open' button. He glanced up to see Clint slip in, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, and grin at him.

"Thanks, man."

"Of course," Bruce replied quietly before looking down, "I don't mean to be paranoid- but you aren't following me, are you? I  _am_ allowed to leave the tower, right?"

"Nah, if I was you wouldn't know it," Clint assured him, "Besides, I wouldn't want to interrupt your date," he added with a wink.

"Oh, good..." Bruce said quietly.

Clint raised an eyebrow, "Wait, really, you have a date? I thought Tony was joking."

Bruce chuckled at that, "He was, I'm just meeting someone, I guess you could call him a colleague, for coffee."

"Well, that doesn't sound like it's definitely  _not_ a date," he pointed out teasingly.

"Right..." He agreed, rolling his eyes.

The elevator came to a stop and they both stepped out into the lobby. It was a Saturday, so not as bustling as it normally was, but enough people were around. Bruce recognized some as Stark Industry employees, the strangers didn't look too suspicious.

He beathed in sharply, "This is the first time I've left the tower since I came back."

"You alright, doc?" Clint asked, watching him warily.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, it was just a little weird to realize. I forgot how exposed I feel in this city," he said quietly, shoving his hands in his pockets, "It'll be fine, though."

"Yeah, even if anyone grabs you- you've got that tracking device SHIELD planted on you," he offered with a grin.

Bruce stared at him, "You're kidding, right?"

Clint just chuckled and nodded towards the doors. They could see Peter outside, although he was facing away from them. He looked to have earbuds in, bouncing slightly with whatever he was listening to.

"That's your boy, right?" He asked, cocking his head to the side, "Looks a bit young, guess I should have expected it- he was interning here..."

"It's not a date," Bruce repeated a bit sharply, before clearing his throat, "I don't see why it matters how old he is."

"Hey, don't get so defensive, I was just noticing," Clint insisted, holding his hands up, "Anyways, come on, no reason to keep him waiting."

"Yeah, sorry," Bruce mumbled as they both walked towards the door in silence.

When they got outside, Bruce tapped on Peter's shoulder and he glanced over, grinning when he saw who it was. He took the earbuds out, reaching in his pocket to click it off. "Hey," he said, pausng slightly when he noticed Clint.

"Hey..." Bruce said with a nervous smile. He motioned towards Clint, "This is Clint Barton."

"I was just leaving," Clint added with a wink, gently punching Bruce's shoulder, "Good luck on your date." He disappeared into the crowd of New Yorkers before either of them could respond, and Bruce shook his head.

A blush crept over Peter's face as he stared after him, "Is that, I mean, do you... Er, not that it would... Um..."

"He was joking," Bruce assured him.

"Oh," Peter said awkwardly, running a hand through his hair, "Right... So, coffee?"

"I'm not familiar with the city, is there anywhere you were thinking of?"

"Yeah, I know a great place not far from here- not a lot of people know about it, so it's quiet," Peter said with a smile, recovered from the earlier shock.

Bruce chuckled slightly, "Sounds perfect." Peter just grinned at that, motioning for Bruce to follow him as he started walking.

* * *

The shop was just what Peter had promised, quiet and uncrowded. It was cozy, decorated with bookshelves and plush chairs and couches. There were a few groups there, as well as people working on computers. It seemed like a good place for college students who needed caffeine and quiet to study.

They put in their orders, mocha for Peter and chamomile tea for Bruce, and sat down. They sat in silence for a moment, neither really sure what to say.

"Hey, do you not drink coffee because the caffeine might... y'know?" Peter asked as Bruce set his tea down to steep.

Bruce smiled and shook his head, "It's not nearly enough to cause those problems, no. At first I was afraid it would, now I've just gotten out of the habit. I'll try it sometimes, but I just prefer the taste of tea."

"Cool," Peter said, staring down at his cup and trying to think of something to say.  "I know I said thanks before, but I really do appreciate what you've done for me, I'm not sure what I would've done if you hadn't."

"You probably would have kept breaking into labs, started building equipment in your room, and generally taking risks you shouldn't," Bruce offered, taking a sip of his tea.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, "Yeah... Something like that..."

"Yeah," Bruce agreed softly, "I've been there." Peter looked up at him in surprise. "I didn't have any options, either, and I couldn't just get an internship to get access to a lab, it didn't end that well."

Peter nodded, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry..." It felt a bit contrite, but he wasn't sure what else to say.

"It's fine," Bruce insisted, looking away. They stayed like that for a moment until he looked pointedly at his shoulder and offered a weak, "Um?"

"Oh!" Peter said, jerking his hand away quickly and blushing slightly, "Sorry about that..."

"It's alright, I'm just not used to people touching me," he responded with a nervous laugh. Peter gave him a confused look and he shrugged. "I guess they think it'll set me off, it's not a big deal."

"The no-touching thing must make sex awkward," Peter joked without really thinking. He hadn't been sure what else to say, but as soon as the words were out he was pretty sure that wasn't it.

Bruce blinked at him before snorting, "Yes, well, I imagine it would..."

Peter raised an eyebrow, "Wait, do you mean to say that you haven't at all since the accident? That was years ago..." He at least managed to resist suggesting that that was the _real_ reason Hulk was so angry.

"It didn't seem worth the risk," he replied with a shrug, "The first time I tried after, I almost... Well..." he cleared his throat and lowered his voice, leaning forward, "Then I found out my blood can kill, and I don't know what _else_ is dangerous..." He frowned and leaned back, "I should really look into that."

Peter's face paled, "Could that happen with mine...?"

"Have you had any problems so far?"

"I haven't exactly had the chance for any problems to come up," Peter admitted, scratching the back of his head, "My, uh, lifestyle makes it hard to make a relationship work... I haven't gotten _that_ far..."

"And you were giving me trouble..." Bruce said with a smirk.

"Hey, I'm only 19, it's a lot more accepta- ok, it's really embarassing," he conceded, covering his face with his hands.

Bruce put a hand on his shoulder, "There are plenty of people your age just as inexperienced." He took his hand back and grinned, "I've never met any of them, but I'm  _sure_ they exist."

Peter threw the throw pillow from his chair at him and Bruce dodged it easily, laughing.

"To answer your question, though, you'll probably be safe so long as you use a condom, which you should be doing anyways," Bruce added seriously, and Peter rolled his eyes, "And don't worry about saliva, copious amounts of making out haven't had any negative effects yet." He smiled smugly when Peter choked on his coffee at that.

"What... What's the problem, exactly? How could your blood kill someone?" Peter asked quietly.

"Radiation poisoning," Bruce said sadly, "I've got a high amount of radiation because, well, enough that it should've killed me. Your levels aren't much lower than mine, so I think the risk is there for you. We shouldn't be a threat to each other for that reason, though."

Peter raised his eyebrows, "Are you suggesting that we....?"

"What?" Bruce asked, blushing slightly. Peter smiled at the sight, it wasn't common to see Doctor Banner get flustered. "No, no, I wasn't even thinking about that... I just meant that that's why I didn't mind you working with me." He looked down at his cup, "Although I really should have told you the potential risks, I'm sorry for not warning you."

Peter patted his shoulder, pulling away quickly when he felt Bruce jerk away from it, "Hey, nothing happened, don't worry about it."

"No, but it could have," he said, brushing an unruly curl behind his ear, "I should probably be glad you won't be working with me anymore..."

"You're not?" Peter asked, making sure to keep his face blank. Bruce just shrugged and looked down, taking a particularly long drink of tea. Peter looked away, "You know... You keep saying that, but I don't see any reason we can't." He looked down, "I just figured you didn't want to deal with some college brat anymore."

"What? No!" Bruce said worriedly, placing his hand on Peter's before realizing what he'd done. He pulled back with a wince, he was starting to get a habit of acting without thinking, and that really wasn't safe. "As long as it doesn't interfere with your school or, well anything else, I'd love to keep working with you."

"Really? That'd be great," Peter said with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone complains that this is too Peter/Bruce-centric: I will admit that I've done a few Tony/Bruce fics and seen a lot more, so I'm more familiar with the pairing and may neglect them. Also, shhhh, wait til the next chapter. ;)
> 
> Oh, also, I wrote a chunk of this on my phone and used // to mark where to italicize. PLEASE let me know if I missed any!


	3. Chapter 3

 

"Tony," Bruce said sternly, "We're not eating in the lab."

Tony rolled his eyes and wiped his grease covered hands on an equally greasy rag, "You know, this brings back memories. It was years ago when Pepper was still trying to fight me on that one." Tony smirked, "She finally relented when she realized I just wouldn't eat."

"You can't pretend to think that's healthy," Bruce shook his head. The engineering floors generally weren't so bad, and that was where Tony spent most of his time, but Bruce had found empty plates next to toxic chemicals more than a few times.

"No, but, c'mon, who's gonna make me?" Tony asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

Bruce put a hand on his forehead, "Is that what you want, really, to make _me_ drag your sorry ass out of here 3 times a day just so you can eat?"

"I'd like to see you try- I'm not as easy as the press makes me sound." He finished with a wink and Bruce laughed softly.

"Fine, fine... Anyways, I wasn't telling you not to, but there's no way in Hell I am so if you want to have lunch with me, we're going somewhere else," Bruce pointed out.

Tony pouted playfully, "That's just not fair, I know you eat in your lab!"

"I have a section set aside for that so the food won't contaminate my experiments and my experiments won't contaminate the food."

Tony pursed his lipsm "Okay, fine, we can eat somewhere else- but only because we're celebrating you not having to babysit an intern anymore."

"Thank you," Bruce said, rolling his eyes as he began dragging Tony out of the lab. He'd see about getting him to clean up while Bruce cooked. "And he really wasn't that bad."

"Yeah, whatever you say, I tried working with interns once, couldn't stand 'em," Tony said, shaking his head. He grinned, "Didn't help that I was younger than most of them, they kind of resented that."

"I can see why," he said with a chuckle.

Tony shook his head, "You know, I still can't believe that Spidey's a college kid... And he's been around for a few years."

"I know," Bruce agreed softly, "It feels so young, but then I think about the rest of the team... Natasha started before anyone should," he noticed Tony's face darken at that, "I think Clint was young when he started, too, Thor was raised to be a warrior, and I think Steve started signing up for the army his 18th birthday. Maybe earlier. A lot of people his age are in jobs just as dangerous or worse..."

"We kinda got lucky," Tony agreed quietly, "You were out of grad school at least, right?"

"Yeah... Ross got me to start working for him right after. Well, to be fair, Betty convinced me to...” he looked down, “Feels like a lifetime ago.”

"I know what you mean,” Tony agreed whistfully, automatically moving a hand to his chest to feel the arc reactor under the fabric.

Bruce shook his head, “So what do you do to stop feeling old after going down that train of thought?”

“Get drunk and sleep with a gorgeous yet vapid 20 year old,” he said with a hollow laugh, “The hangover will distract you so you don't feel even older in the morning.”

Bruce frowned, “That isn't why you and Pepper broke up, is it...?” It had happened one of the times he had disappeared. He had been gone for a few weeks only to be getting dragged back by Clint in the desperate hope that Bruce would be able to get Tony to stop drinking himself to death, and also that Pepper had moved in with Happy Hogan. He tried to get more information, but the Avengers didn't seem to know what had happened, Tony refused to talk about it and Pepper, well, he didn't know her well enough.

“Heh, nah, not that it didn't happen a few times...” he admitted with a shrug, “We came to an agreement pretty quick that we were both allowed to, there were a few rules... That wasn't the problem.”

“Huh... That makes sense.”

“Yup, worked pretty well. The press still got its scandals, and we got to trade sexy stories instead of fighting, everyone wins,” Tony attempted to grin, but it didn't reach his eyes and looked disingenuous. The look of concern he received wasn't what he had been aiming for so he crossed his arms and frowned, “Look- I don't need to talk about it, I'm fine, really.”

“As long as I don't have to deal with you attempting to get into your suit while so drunk you can't stand,” Bruce said with a smirk.

Tony just scoffed, “Well if _you_ have a better idea of how to start a round of drunken Hulk wrestling, I'd like to hear it.”

* * *

“Did I ever tell you about Betty?”

It was fairly late. Bruce had managed to convince Tony to leave the lab in time to get to sleep at an early enough hour, then Tony suggested going to the lounge to grab a drink. Bruce knew better than to try to push Tony out of that, and didn't really care to very much, although he still just grabbed straight coke instead of alcohol. They were both relaxing on one of the couches, not next to each other but not at opposite ends, either.

“Betty who?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bruce chuckled slightly, that answered that question, “Ross.”

“What, like General Ross?”

“Yup- his daughter.”

“What about her?”

“We dated for awhile, I wanted to marry her before the gamma blast,” Bruce explained. He sipped the soda and waited for Tony's response, which didn't disappoint as the man nearly choked on his scotch.

“You're joking!” he spluttered, torn between laughing and shaking his head.

Bruce grinned, “Nope- met in college, dated through grad school, and were talking about marriage before her dad set the entire army after me.”

Tony laughed at that, before stopping abruptly. “You aren't telling this to make me feel better about Pepper, are you?”

“Jesus, Tony...” Bruce said, leaning over to push his shoulder, although he was still smiling, “Not everything is about you.”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Tony responded, rubbing his arm, “So why are you telling me this?”

Bruce shrugged, “I don't have to if you don't want- I just haven't really talked about it and it still weighs on me,” he slunk down in his seat slightly, “Sometimes I think about looking up where she is now that I've actually got something of a stable life, find out if she'll take me back.”

“Really?” Tony asked, his grip tightening on his glass, “Why don't you?”

“The first time I ever Hulked out... the first thing I remember after that gamma blast is seeing her in the hospital, because of me,” Bruce replied with a heavy sigh, taking a long drink of coke and briefly wishing it were something stronger, “I know I've got more control on it, it's not likely, Hulk's getting better, blah blah blah, but I just can't take that risk.”

Tony watched at Bruce for a moment, not sure what to say to that. After a moment he just shifted over on the couch so their sides were touching, when Bruce didn't move away he spoke. “You know that's not a risk here, right, even if the Big Guy tried to attack us? Steve and Thor can handle Hulk as they are, I could suit up, and both Clint and Natasha would be able to get out of the way.”

Bruce moved his eyes to look at him and nodded, “Yeah, I do.”

“Good,” Tony said warmly. Bruce raised an eyebrow at him and Tony just shrugged, “I've got a lot of projects I want to work with you on- so you disappearing again would be pretty damn inconvenient.”

Bruce smiled, “Of course.”

* * *

They kept talking after that, Tony turning the subject to which of the Avengers would be able to beat Hulk in a fight and being privately delighted when Bruce went along with it instead of shutting down. That turned into a 'who can beat who' that dragged up the way that Tony, Steve, and Thor had all basically gotten into a fight when they first met. Tony wasn't sure how Bruce had managed never to hear that story, but was glad to be the one who got to tell him.

At some point Tony must have fallen asleep, or at least that was the only reason he could figure for why he was waking up on the couch. It was hardly the first time, and at least he wasn't hung over for once. He started to stretch, and become aware of a weight on his lap. He frowned slightly until he looked down and saw that Bruce was curled up on the couch next to him, using his lap as a pillow.

“Huh,” Tony murmured, not entirely sure what to do now. He let his hand move to brush over Bruce's hair, jerking it away when Bruce shifted slightly. _In hindsight_ , he decided, _that was probably creepy_. He just shrugged and smiled slightly to himself, leaning his head back and falling back asleep.

The next time Tony woke up, it was to Bruce jostling his arm. He opened a bleary eye and was about to ask what was going on before he remembered what had happened and froze. Bruce bit his lip, “Um- Jarvis said that you have a board meeting in half an hour.”

“What?” Tony asked, rubbing his face and sitting up, “Oh, fuck, that was today, right.” He stretched before standing up, mumbling a goodbye, and heading to his room to get ready. He wasn't really sure how to feel that Bruce didn't say anything about the fact that they'd fallen asleep on each other.


	4. Chapter 4

It was about a week later, and Tony was heading towards the communal kitchen in the hopes that someone had made coffee that he could grab before heading to the lab. He raised an eyebrow when he heard muffled voices, wondering who was around. Most of the other Avengers didn't spend a lot of time around the tower. Clint and Natasha still did missions for SHIELD, and seemed to get antsy when they stayed round the tower for more than a few weeks at a time, Thor lived in another world, and while both Bruce and Steve stayed in the tower basically every night; Steve spent as much time as he could getting out and Bruce holed up in the lab. It was rare to run into anyone, especially two of them at the same time.

Tony stopped in his tracks after rounding the corner and seeing Bruce and Peter sitting at the island counters, laughing about something.

“Oh, hey, Tony,” Bruce said, noticing him before he had the chance to turn around and leave.

Tony put on his most charismatic, impress the press smile and walked over, “Hey- you're Spidey, right, wasn't expecting to see you around.”

“Heh, yeah... Could you not call me that- it's a secret identity for a reason, you know?” Peter asked with a nervous laugh, straightening in his seat.

“Right, right, I always forget about those... Sorry.”

Bruce chuckled, “What, you, Mr. “Announces he's Ironman at the first press conference he can”, not understanding secret identities? Hard to believe.”

“I know, I know, I'm usually the pinnacle of subtelty,” Tony agreed, looping an arm around Bruce's shoulders. He winked at Peter, “Don't worry, kid, your secret's safe with me.”

“Great, thanks,” Peter said, running a hand through his hair. He frowned slightly as Tony left his arm around Bruce and Bruce didn't seem to care. “I thought you weren't okay with people touching you.”

Tony raised his eyebrow at that, looking at Bruce, “You've never had a problem with me- am I not 'people'?”

“You know you're not, Tony,” Bruce replied with a smirk, “The suit and you are one, remember? You can't be a person _and_ a suit, Tony.”

“Huh, that's a very creative way of throwing my words back at me,” Tony offered his free hand and Bruce shook it. “Well done, Doctor Banner.”

“Haha, yeah...” Peter said, glancing at his watch and standing up, “You know- I just remembered that I have a big project I need to work on...”

“Your first week?” Bruce asked, shrugging Tony's arm off and standing up as well.

“Yeah, I know, teacher's a real prick...” Peter said with a lopsided smile as he grabbed his backpack, “Photography professors- be glad you never had to deal with them.”

“Okay... I'll see you later, then?” Bruce asked with concern, biting his lip to stop from asking if it was something he'd done.

Peter looked over at Bruce and smiled slightly, “Yeah, of course. I'll see you later.” He nodded to Tony, “Good to see you again, Mr. Stark.”

“You, too,” Tony agreed with a grin that bordered on smug.

Once Peter left, Bruce sat back down and rubbed his face slightly. The feelings of victory that Tony had been feeling vanished to see him so deflated. “Hey... you alright?”

“Yeah...” Bruce said quietly, “I just...” he looked up at Tony, “I didn't do anything wrong, did I?”

Tony's stomach lurched slightly. He shook his head and grinned, “What? Nah- don't be ridiculous. You remember what college was like, right? He's just busy.”

“Right...” he shook his head before sitting up a bit straighter, “Hey, what did you come in here for? We didn't get in your way or anything, did we?”

“I was just going to grab some coffee before heading back to the lab,” Tony replied with a shrug, “No big deal.”

Bruce glanced over, “The pot's empty- if you put the coffee maker on, I'll bring it down to you when it's ready.”

“Thanks,” he said with a soft smile, walking over to start making coffee, “But it's nothing that important, I'll just hang out for awhile if that's alright with you.”

“That sounds great,” he said with a nod, “Hey- when did you last eat?”

“I don't really think you'll like the answer to that,” Tony replied with a slight laugh, leaning against the counter after he'd finished with the coffee.

Bruce gave him an exhasperated look and shook his head, “I'll make you a sandwich, then.”

“You don't _have_ to....” Tony said with a grin, “We've got turkey in, right?”

“Mhmm,” Bruce replied with a soft laugh.

“Awesome, thank you.” Tony walked over and sat down in one of the seats, leaning back and relaxing as he watched Bruce work for a moment. He picked up one of the salt shakers and started playing with it, focusing his attention on it. “Hey, what _was_ web-head doing here...?

Bruce sighed heavily, not turning to face him, “Tony... Just, at least promise me you won't call him that around anyone else.”

Tony watched Bruce's back for a moment before frowning, “Bruce- just because I want people to know I'm Ironman, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate how important privacy is for most superheroes.” He looked down and shook his head, “I've gone to some pretty good lengths to keep your secret safe, do you really think I don't care?”

Bruce whinced when he heard that before turning around, holding both a plate and cup of coffee, with an apologetic smile. “You're right, that wasn't fair, I'm sorry- I guess I've gotten a bit overprotective of him.” He put the plate down on the counter and pushed it towards Tony.

“Yeah, I noticed...” he grumbled before pulling the plate towards himself and picking up half of the sandwich. “You didn't answer my question.”

“I'm still helping him...” Bruce said quietly, sitting down across from Tony, “I want to help him, I remember how awful it was after the gamma blast- not knowing what was going on with me, it wasn't until I saw the news footage that I knew what Hulk actually was, I just knew that I'd black out and wake up naked and surrounded by destruction. I know it's better for him, but it's still got to be scary.”

Tony nodded slowly, studying the wall ahead of him. “Yeah, I can understand that...”

“I'm a bit worried, though...” Tony looked over at him with a raised eyebrow before he continued, “I keep acting without thinking around him... Nothing bad, yet, but it's not safe for me to do that so easily.”

Tony just worked on eating his sandwich before responding, not really sure how to. He generally fully supported anything that meant Bruce opening up more, learning to strut, realizing that he wasn't as dangerous as he thought. But it had taken Bruce considerably longer to be anywhere near spontaneous around him, and if Bruce stopped spending time with Peter, that was more time Bruce could spend with him. He wasn't really sure what result he wanted to come from his answer, which made it hard to think of what to answer.

When Bruce started fidgeting slightly, he finally shrugged, “Well, do whatever you want, you could find a way to help the kid without being around him.”

“Yeah...” he agreed, running a hand through his hair and nodding, “Yeah... I could.”

 

* * *

 

Peter spent most of the rather unbelievably long elevator ride banging his head lightly against the wall. He only dared do so lightly, the entire tower was rigged with sensors and the last thing he wanted was for security to decide he was a threat. At least he wasn't going to be interrupted. One nice thing about coming down from the Avengers' area was that it was a private elevator, so there wasn't much chance of having to deal with anyone else getting on.

He wasn't sure what was wrong, exactly. Nothing really happened that should have upset him this much. Bruce and Tony knew each other a lot longer, of course Bruce was more comfortable around him, that didn't mean Bruce somehow liked him less than he did the day before. It wasn't a big deal, really.

So why did seeing that make him feel the intense urge to get out of there?

He rubbed his face with his hands and tried not to think about just how _hurt_ Bruce had looked when he left early.

When he finally got out of the elevator, he took out his phone and texted Gwen to ask what she was up to. She was about to start class, and they made plans to meet afterwards.

 

* * *

 

  
“So, what's wrong?” Gwen asked as she set her bag down, sitting down across from him at the table in the student center.

Peter raised an eyebrow and gave her a half smile, “What? Why does something have to be wrong for me to want to see my best friend?”

Gwen just gave him a look and shook her head, “It actually kind of does given your schedule, we aren't able to just hang out that much.” She smiled at him, “I'm not upset about that, though, but you look like you just found out the world was going to end tomorrow... Which is a possibility, I guess.”

“True,” he agreed with a small laugh, shaking his head, “It's really nothing, I don't even know why it's bothering me, it shouldn't.”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “Generally people don't get upset for no reason, Peter... Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Sure, I guess, it's no big deal so I don't see why not,” he shrugged, “There's a guy I met awhile ago, kinda became friends with him, and he told me that he didn't like anyone touching him- then he let another friend of his hang all over him and it just bugged me. A lot.” Peter shook his head, face heating up slightly, “See, it's really stupid, I really shouldn't care.”

“You sound jealous.”

“What do I have to be jealous about?” Peter asked with a laugh that sounded too forced, he leaned back in the chair and shook his head. “Would you be?”

Gwen thought about how to answer it for a moment, studying his face, “I wouldn't... if I _only_ liked him as a friend.”

Peter laughed at that, shaking his head and pointedly avoiding looking at her, “Don't be ridiculous- there's no way he'd be interested in me like that, so that'd still be a horrible reason to be jealous.”

“Do you?” Gwen asked gently, watching him patiently.

“I haven't thought about it...” he admitted looking at his hands, “It's not going to happen so why waste time thinking about it, right?”

Gwen groaned at that, “If you don't stop being so self-deprecating, I'm going to find out who your crush is and tell your Aunt May to invite him for dinner.”

“Alright, alright, I give in...” Peter said with a chuckle, “You're right... I shouldn't be so negative.”

“No, you shouldn't,” Gwen said smugly, “Because if you do, I'll have to start spewing cliches about how anyone would be lucky to have you- and we don't want that.”

“That would be pretty horrible, yeah,” he agreed, “Okay... okay, I'll stop being so mopey. But, still, I don't want to mess things up. Things'll get weird if he doesn't feel the same, right?”

Gwen nodded, leaning back in her chair, “That's true...” She thought on it for a moment before smiling, “Well, you didn't seem too certain anyways, you don't have to say anything immediately. You can just keep going as you have been, figure out if it really is a crush, and think about where to go from there.”

Peter drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before nodding, “Huh, yeah, that's a good idea.”

“Of course it is,” Gwen said smugly before grinning at him and leaning forward, “So, spill, is it someone I know?”

“Just believe me when I tell you that it's... really complicated,” he said with a laugh.


	5. Chapter 5

' _Okay, you can do this, don't overthink anything..._ ' Peter told himself as he made his way to Stark Tower. Gwen had convinced him that the best thing to do right now would be to just act like he had been, not to assume that he had been jealous or it was a crush if he wasn't certain. It seemed like a pretty solid plan.

At least, it did until he got to the tower and walked into the lab. His stomach started squirming uncomfortably when he saw Bruce, and acting normal started to seem like an impossible task. He shook his head and just smiled as best as he could, knocking on the opened door to announce his presence.

Bruce looked up and smiled at him, “Hey- how did your project go?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, the photography...” Peter said, running a hand through his hair, “It went fine, photography professors love me because I can get views of the city no one else can,” he shrugged, “Just have to actually take them, develop the film, all that...”

“How long have you been into photography?” Bruce asked, leaning against the desk.

Peter shrugged, “I've always been interested in it, then during highschool I got a decent camera and did some work for the school newspaper and stuff... I've been taking pictures for the Daily Bugle, actually, helps pay for college.” He grinned, “I get paid a lot for the _exclusive_ Spider Man pictures I can manage to get.”

“Nice,” he said with a laugh, “Have to pay for the costume somehow, right?”

“Damn straight,” Peter agreed, looking down shyly. He glanced around the room, “So, uh, it's been awhile since I've been here... what do you need my help on?”

“I'm just processing the data right now...” Bruce explained, motioning towards one of the computers, “I've just been testing how the blood samples reacted to different things...” he smiled sheepishly, “It's silly, but I actually enjoyed watching the bacteria's response to the gamma radiation in my blood...”

“At least you can find some things you enjoy about it, huh?” Peter asked with a small smile, sitting down at the computer and looking over the notes of what had been done and still needed to be done.

“Yeah... And something that's a bit less morbid than enjoying the feeling of falling off of a cliff...” Bruce agreed with a sad smile. Peter turned to look at him, concerned, and Bruce just shook his head, “Don't worry about it.”

Peter just frowned before turning back to the computer as Bruce started working at another one.

"There has _got_ to be an easier way to do this..." Peter grumbled to himself, pulling up the user guide for the program and scanning through it.

Bruce walked over and looked over his shoulder, "First time using the program?"

"Yeah...." Peter admitted with a blush, running a hand through his hair, "This is pretty far beyond what we have at school."

"I'll bet," Bruce said with a chuckle, "May I?" Peter nodded, moving his hand off the mouse and keyboard. Bruce placed a hand on the back of the chair and leaned down. His face was next to Peter's, who could feel the older man's breath on his cheek. He tried paying attention as Bruce showed him the program, explaining as he went, but he couldn't concentrate on anything beyond the tingling that the closeness sent down his spine.

"Th-thanks," he managed when Bruce had finished, suddenly trying to come up with some other computer problem he could ask for help with to keep Bruce from moving.

"Of course," he replied, turning to look at him. He froze, then jerked back and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have..."

Peter stood up and turned to face him, "Sorry for what? I didn't mind..."

"I shouldn't have gotten so close... I can't afford to, it's too dangerous."

"It's not," Peter said gently, grabbing Bruce's wrist, "I've dealt with Hulk before, Bruce, even if you somehow lost control over a computer problem- I'm not a normal person, I could handle it, you know I can."

Bruce placed a hand over the one on Peter's wrist and looked at him uncertainly. Peter bit his lip and met his gaze, aware that they'd almost never been this close to each other. He noticed the tiny flecks of green in Bruce's deep brown eyes, how his hair fell over his forehead in a way that made Peter's fingers itch to brush it back, and was tempted to lean forward that little bit, to touch their lips together.

Then Bruce was pushing his hand away and Peter was brought back to reality. "This... It just won't work, you can still use the lab if you want to, but us working together, it just can't happen," Bruce said quietly, "I'm so sorry..."

"You know, you say that a lot, Bruce," he said, trying to hide the hurt in his voice, "When you say something enough, it stops meaning anything."

He grabbed his backpack and left without another word. Bruce didn't watch him go, standing still until the door slammed shut. He then dropped into the nearest chair, head in his hands.

* * *

Later that night, Bruce was making dinner in the communal kitchen when Tony wandered in. Bruce glanced over and just raised an eyebrow at him, and Tony grinned in return.

"I heard you were cooking dinner," he said, nodding to the stove.

Bruce chuckled, "Did you?"

"Yup, you'd be amazed what you hear when you have Jarvis."

"I take it that means you want some."

"Well, if you're offering..." Tony said with a smirk.

"You do know that I learned how to cook on the run, in 3rd world countries, it won't be up to your standards," Bruce pointed out.

"I'm so hungry that I really won't notice," Tony assured him, leaning over and looking at the pan on the stove, "Anything I can do to help?"

"Can you cook the rice?"

"Um...." Tony said, realizing that this wasn't the best offer he ever made.

Bruce just chuckled slightly and put the lid over the pan, "I'll show you."

The rice ended up fine and without any real accidents, although Bruce smacked Tony's hand with a wooden spoon a few times for letting the steam out. After seeing the finished, fluffy rice Tony just grinned and announced his success. Bruce smiled and didn't point out that Tony had barely done anything. Bruce served the rice, pouring the vegetable sauce he'd made over it, before placing the plates on the table.

Tony ate happily, imitating a food critic analyzing the meal as he did, earning appreciative laughs. He trailed off once he noticed that Bruce was only moving food around his plate, not actually eating, and frowned, “Don't tell me that _you_ don't like it...”

“No, it's fine,” Bruce said with a shrug, “I just don't have much of an appetite...”

“But... you were cooking it for yourself...” Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

“It was something to do, and I'm happy to eat it when it gets cold, don't worry about it.”

“Something wrong...?”

Bruce looked down, poking at a piece of green pepper with his fork, “I told Peter that I shouldn't work with him anymore.

Tony covered his mouth with a hand to hide his grin, hoping that the overall expression came off as concerned, “Oh?”

“Yeah... I think he's mad at me now.”

“Well, it happens,” Tony said, leaning back in his chair, “If you made the right decision, that's all that matters.”

“Too bad there's no way to know for sure I did...” Bruce grumbled.

Tony frowned at that then just shrugged and grinned at him, “Well, even if you didn't, it's not like it's worse than all the mistakes I've made- so don't worry about it.”

Bruce smirked at that, “That is a pretty good measure to use to avoid ever worrying about mistakes again...”

“Exactly,” Tony replied, “Besides- I know what'll take your mind off of it, I've got an idea for something to invent, you'll like it.” Bruce raised an eyebrow at that. “We should invent pants that stretch and shrink with you.”

“That would be nice... but all the fabric that superheroes wear that does that is skintight,” Bruce pointed out, “I don't really think that's a good idea.”

“That's what I thought you said- which is good, because making a skintight suit that stretches with you would be boring, anyone can do it,” Tony smirked, “No- I want to make something that stretches with you _and_ fits like regular pants.”

“That does sound interesting,” Bruce said, lips quirking into a smile, “So, where should we start?”

* * *

Working in the lab with Tony always helped. It came easily and keeping Tony out of trouble was enough distraction to make sure his mind didn't drift anywhere he didn't want it. That was probably the trait that made it difficult for most people to be around Tony, his willingness to completely forgo his personal safety. It left people with the option of watching him self destruct or having to constantly struggle to protect him from himself. It was also this that made Bruce so comfortable around him, Tony was truly fearless about having Bruce around, and trying to keep him out of harm's way let Bruce feel like he was actually being helpful instead of just being a nuisance.

After a few hours of work, they actually started getting results that looked promising. The prototype couldn't expand anywhere near enough, but that it _could_ was a good sign. Bruce ran a hand over his hair while he looked at it, “You know, this is going to end up being the most expensive clothes I've ever owned.”

“I can fix that, I could get you a suit that costs more than this,” Tony smirked at him, “I'd consider it a favor, you'd look good in a suit.”

“Tony... you aren't trying to drag me to science conventions again, are you?” Bruce asked with a wary smile.

Tony pouted, “Why not? What's the point of having a brilliant scientist if I can't show him off?”

“I don't even know what my legal status is, do you really think it's a good idea to potentially be showing off a fugitive?” Bruce asked, shaking his head, though he was still smiling.

Tony stared at him for a moment before shaking his head and shrugging, “Given who I am, no one would be surprised.”

Bruce almost pointed out that Pepper wouldn't appreciate it, before remembering the break up and deciding that wasn't a good idea. “I'd still rather not end up being tackled by security at my first public appearance in the scientific community, thanks,” he pointed out instead, chuckling slightly, “People are going to start thinking that's the only thing I do.”

“It'd certainly get you noticed,” Tony pointed out with a grin. “As long as we're talking about suits- what do you think of making a stretchy one once we get this working? How do you think the press would react to jolly green in a well cut suit?”

“You know, I actually want to find out,” Bruce said with a smirk.


	6. Chapter 6

It's not that Peter was heartbroken, he really wasn't. It was just that rejection always sucked. It sucked to be let down by someone he had thought highly of, or maybe Peter had let him down somehow. He wasn't really sure, it didn't matter too much in the end. Peter had spent a week waiting for a phone call or email with an apology or explanation. Or even just one pretending it hadn't happened would have been good. It didn't come, though, and eventually Peter just had to accept that it had happened and that was the end of it. 

For whatever reason, Bruce didn't want him around. It wasn't a huge loss but, well, it still hurt a bit.

He was almost glad for the distraction when he heard the call over the police scanner that the Green Goblin was causing mayhem again. Almost, although he quickly reminded himself that the Goblin was a fairly formidable opponent who kept coming up with new tricks. He'd beaten him before, but he still couldn't let his guard down or think of it as just something to take his mind off his love life (or lack thereof).

By the time he was getting close to the location, he already had a decent plan formed, and was just waiting to get a look at the situation to decide what his best first move would be when--

“ _What the hell?!_ ”

He stopped on one of the rooftops and just stared down at the scene in the alley. The Green Goblin was there, as promised, but he had some unexpected guests as well. The Avengers had apparently found out as well, and were already there and well started. Hulk was the most obvious, looking annoyed at having to maneuver in the street without doing too much damage and swatting at the Goblin as if he were a fly, and Iron Man was in the air as well. He couldn't see the Black Widow, which was hardly unusual for her, and Captain America was shouting into his headset. Peter glanced around the other rooftops and spotted Hawkeye, who winked at him, bow poised on the Goblin's position.

Eventually Hulk managed to actually catch the Goblin, smashing his hands together over the villain's form like a small child trying to catch a firefly. He grinned and looked over to Iron Man, before yelping and ripping his hands apart as he roared in pain.

Spider-Man just shook his head, swinging easily over to land on Hulk's shoulder. “Gave you a shock, didn't he, buddy?” he asked, “I could have told you about those gloves- they're a nasty piece of work.”

“Nasty mosquito,” Hulk growled, cautiously rubbing his palms together. Behind them the Green Goblin's cackling was cut off by one of Iron Man's repulsor beams.

“Yeah- he is- so why the hell are you guys after him? He's _my_ villain, I'm the one he's always targeted and I'm the one who's always beat him,” Spider-Man pointed out in annoyance.

“Team can handle it,” the Hulk grumbled in reply.

“I could have handled it just fine!” he snapped, “I've been fighting villains like him for years, by myself, just fine, I don't need you all barging in and saving the day- I can do that perfectly well without you!”

Hulk just stared at him blankly as he started ranting, not at all used to people yelling at him. Bad guys did, sometimes, but Hulk could just respond by smashing them. The other Avengers would yell orders, but not angrily. Hulk furrowed his brows, trying to work out how to respond to this.

Spider-Man, meanwhile, didn't seem to be paying attention to the Hulk's response. His complaints continued, eventually reaching, “-and you never would have hurt your damn hand- if you hadn't been too stubborn and... _stupid_ to just take my help!”

That was Hulk's last straw. “Hulk _not_ stupid!” he growled, lifting a hand and flicking Spider-Man away as if he were an ant. Spider-Man's chest took most of the blow, which sent him flying. He smacked against a brick wall before he could respond. Fortunately, his reflexes kicked in and he was able to use his webbing to swing to safety, landing on a fire escape. Seeing that the other hero was safe, Hulk grunted and turned his attention back to the Green Goblin.

“That was _not_ my finest moment,” he grumbled, rubbing his chest. That would leave a mark. One side effect of his powers was a higher resistance to impacts, but it certainly wasn't enough to Hulk-proof him.

“Understatement of the century,” Iron Man commented, obviously smirking even despite the mask.. Spider-Man heard the repulsors go off followed by the sound of metal against metal as he touched down, and didn't bother looking up. “What, exactly, was going through your head, there? Did the kids at school dare you to do it?”

“Look, I know it was a stupid thing to do- I won't do it again,” he grumbled, “I was just pissed off that you guys decided to take on _my_ villain.”

Iron Man's laugh, made tinny by the speakers, sounded, “Oh, _your_ villain is he now? Well, maybe if you had gotten here when he started threatening the safety of innocent people, we would have let you handle _your_ villain.”

“I got here as soon as I could,” he said flatly, finally turning to face Iron Man. He didn't get a chance to speak to the Avengers very often, and for a moment he couldn't help but marvel at just how much of Tony Stark's personality was able to shine through a mask that completely covered his face and armor that hid subtle body language. It would be more impressive if he weren't using that skill to be a condescending prick.

“And that isn't soon enough,” Iron Man said firmly. Spider-Man supposed he couldn't argue with that. 

* * *

“ _What the hell are they doing?_ ”

Captain America sighed heavily as Black Widow's voice hissed over the com. He could hear Hawkeye grumble agreement, and couldn't help but feel the same. It was a bit unusual that Spider-Man had immediately gone to the Hulk when he showed up, but from afar it seemed like he was probably just giving the big guy pointers. Aside from Iron Man, Hulk was the next best at handling a flying opponent and could use the advice. Black Widow had been putting in a good fight, but having to find a way to get back up to his level every time she got thrown to the ground took time. Hawkeye's arrows and Cap's shield had also aided somewhat, but the fight had really been Hulk and Iron Man versus the Green Goblin.

Then Hulk flicked Spider-Man away like a speck of unwanted dirt, and no one knew what was going on. Black Widow had actually frozen in place when she saw that, although she quickly recovered, and before anyone could do anything- Iron Man had insisted he'd find out what was going on. Of course, that was a few minutes ago and since then he hadn't responded to anything.

“ _They're going to get themselves- or us- killed at this rate,_ ” Black Widow spat, Cap looked over and saw her shaking her head. She was exaggerating, it would take more than the Green Goblin to kill an Avenger, but he couldn't argue with her logic.

“Iron Man!” Cap snarled over the com, “This is your last warning- we need a status update! We're still in the middle of a fight here!”

“ _Don't get your panties in a wad, Capsicle,_ ” Tony replied easily, “ _Jarvis will let me know if anything needs my attention. I'm just making scolding our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for his little stunt._ ”

Captain America breathed in sharply through his nose, trying to keep his cool, before responding, “This is not the time for that.”

Before they had the chance to start an argument about that, Hulk managed to grab the Green Goblin again. His occasional winces and sparks were the only sign that the villain was still trying his electroshock trick, but now that Hulk was expecting it his skin was thick enough to take it. The Avengers rushed over to subdue the villain, and Captain America called in SHIELD to let them know that they'd succeeded and would need transportation and a holding cell for their new friend.

He turned around in time to see Spider-Man about to swing off, as he always did. “Stop right there, young man,” he shouted over sternly, in his most authoritative voice. It had the desired effect, as the young hero froze before turning around, looking at his feet. Cap walked over to him and crossed his arms, “I understand that you have to leave to avoid any run-ins with the authorities, but I expect to see you at Stark Tower in exactly 2 hours- that stunt you pulled was unacceptable and if you want to continue working with us, we need to have a talk.”

“Yes, sir,” he mumbled in reply. He looked up, and his attention was clearly not on Captain America, who turned to see what Spider-Man was looking at. Bruce had transformed back and was huddling in on himself, as usual, with Iron Man knelt down next to him. Cap frowned, but before he could say anything Spider-Man had already disappeared.

* * *

No one commented on what had happened when they got back to the tower. They knew there would be a meeting, it was even possible that Fury would call them in, but Steve was willing to delay it. Bruce was clearly not in a good place to discuss the situation, he’d been all but completely non-responsive since changing back, and until they were able to find out from Spider-Man exactly what happened they couldn’t make any real assurances or decisions.

Natasha and Clint disappeared as soon as they could. Although Natasha had gotten far more comfortable with Hulk, she had never fully forgotten what had happened in the Helicarrier and the idea that Hulk may have turned on an ally had the largest effect on her. Spider-Man appeared to be unhurt, but he had superhuman resilience. If Hulk had done the same to either Clint or Natasha, the results would have been disastrous- something not lost on any of them.

Steve tried once more to cheer up Bruce, putting a hand on his shoulder and reminding him, “Hulk saved the day- don’t forget that,” before leaving.

Tony rolled his eyes at Steve's attempts at morale boosting before frowning slightly at Bruce, not sure how to respond. He decided on looping an arm over Bruce's shoulders and smirking, “Come on, big guy, don't look so glum, it was just--”

“ _Don't_ , Tony,” Bruce said quietly, shrugging Tony's arm off before sinking down onto the nearest chair, “Just... don't.”

“You wouldn't be this upset if it weren't _him_ ,” Tony grumbled, crossing his arms, “Hulk's accidentally hit most of the team at some time or another, he even _intentionally_ hit Thor, and you never got this bent out of shape.”

He sighed heavily, “This was different, Tony.” He waited for the sharp retort, but it never came and after a long moment he turned around and found himself alone in the room. 

* * *

 

Peter almost didn't show up at the Tower. Going felt like a trip to the principal's office, only about 100 times more intimidating. He didn't want to face any of them, and at that point he wasn't really sure it was a great idea to even keep trying to work with the Avengers. Would it really be a problem to just avoid them and hope they'd do the same?

But his Aunt and Uncle had raised him better than to run away from his problems, and so in two hours Peter- still in costume- ended up on one of balconies that he knew was attached to the Avengers' living spaces. He went to knock, but the door opened for him.

“ _Captain Rogers has been waiting for you,_ ” Jarvis informed him. Peter still wasn't entirely used to the AI, which rarely spoke to the interns. He'd only gotten small glimpses of the AI's abilities and apparent omnipresence in the tower from when he worked with Bruce.

“Thank you,” he mumbled awkwardly, “Where is he?" 

“ _He is currently in the gym, I will direct you there._ ”

* * *

As intimidating as just showing up to the tower had seemed, it was nothing compared to trying to approach Steve Rogers while he was working in the gym. Peter bit his lip, grateful for the mask, when he saw the row of destroyed punching bags- the bag Steve was pounding into wouldn't be long to join them. He wasn't afraid of Steve, he was a good man who wouldn't stoop to physical threats unless absolutely necessary, but it was still unnerving.

“ _Captain Rogers?_ ” Jarvis interrupted, Steve glanced up, “ _Your guest has arrived._ ”

Steve straightened, about to ask where he was before he noticed the red and blue in his peripheral vision. He grabbed his towel off a nearby railing and used it to rub the sweat off his face. He smiled disarmingly at the masked hero, “Sorry for not meeting you somewhere more formal- everyone keeps telling me to find a better outlet, but sometimes physical work is the only thing that can clear my head.”

“Don't worry about it,” Peter replied, doing his best to seem nonchalant. He nodded towards the pile of destroyed punching bags, “Bit rough on them, though.”

Steve sighed at that, shaking his head before smiling again, “Yeah... Tony keeps saying he'll make tougher ones, then gets distracted with more interesting projects. I guess the cost to keep replacing them is less than the cost of designing one that can withstand, well, me or else Pepper would have done something about it.”

Peter just nodded at that, trying not to fidget nervously. Steve moved the punching bags to the side where they wouldn't be in the way.

“We can go somewhere a bit better for discussions if you'd prefer,” Steve offered when he'd finished, “The living room isn't far.”

“Is that where the rest of the team is?” Peter asked quietly.

Steve shook his head and started walking, motioning for Peter to follow, “They aren't going to be- most are pretty shaken up over this, none of us are really sure exactly what happened.” His voice had turned serious for the first time, and the comforting smile he'd been wearing dropped.

“What do you mean?”

“All that we saw was you and Hulk having a brief conversation before Hulk...” he frowned, trying to think of a good word to describe what Hulk had done. For most, a blow like that would certainly be described as an attack, but Hulk's strength made it difficult.

Peter shook his head, “I was stupid- I ended up yelling at him.”

Steve stopped in his tracks, staring at the other hero in disbelief. It took Peter a moment to realize Steve had stopped before he did the same and turned around. “Why?”

“Like I said, I was being stupid, I know I was,” he insisted again, holding his hands up defensively. Steve just motioned for him to explain, “I just got angry because the Green Goblin is usually, well, _my_ villain and after what happened...” he realized what he said, and that he had no interest in explaining to Captain America just how childish he was being. He hung his head, “I know, I shouldn't have done it, and I'm sorry.”

Steve frowned slightly, aware that there was more to the story but not sure if it was his business or not. If it effected his team again, it became his business, but right now he could accept that part of the story. “Son, you _are_ aware that we're all heroes here- we don't do it to earn points or win awards, we do it to keep people safe. If you had been there first and had it under control, that would have been one thing, but we can't let a villain terrorize the city just because you feel like he's _your_ villain- and I'd expect you to go after a bad guy that we usually fight in the same way.”

“Yes, sir,” Peter mumbled, still not looking up. “I know that... I don't know why I got as angry as I did, I shouldn't have.

Steve softened. It looked like the other hero was going to beat himself up about it more than any lecture Steve could give him, it probably wouldn't happen again. And, hell, Tony had done the same thing the first time that someone using an Iron Man style suit had started causing problems and the Avengers tried to handle it as a team.

“Alright, just make sure it doesn't happen again,” he said, before running a hand through his hair, “So... you yelled at Hulk, at least it wasn't completely unprovoked.”

“It wasn't,” he insisted quickly, guilt crawling over him as he realized what the team must have thought. He smiled wryly, although it wasn't visible under the mask, “Honestly, I don't think that Hulk knew what to do with being yelled at- I guess no one really had before.”

“No, I don't suppose anyone has,” Steve agreed with a chuckle. He shook his head, “We'll still have to do something about that, but it's a much easier fix at least.”

“I think he knew I could survive it, he probably wouldn't have done that to a civilian,” Peter added.

“I hope you're right.”

They fell into silence for a moment, Steve frowning as he thought about the situation and Peter not sure what else to add.

“If that's all- I'll get out of your hair,” Peter said after the silence got too uncomfortable.

“Not so fast,” Steve said, his face stony, “You need to talk to Bruce.”

Peter swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling dry, “I'm sure he wouldn't want to--”

Steve crossed his arms. “You need to talk to Bruce.” he repeated flatly, “Jarvis will tell you where he is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really not dead! I apologize for how long this took- I'd love to say the next one will be quicker, but life seems hell-bent on stopping me from writing fanfic. I made this a little bit longer than usual, though, hopefully that'll help a little bit. Thank you so much to everyone who's still reading this after so long!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for how long the chapters are taking, I didn't realize it'd been over a month. Uh, here, have some angst to make up for it...

Peter hadn't been sure what to expect from Bruce. His mind ran over the various possibilities as he followed Jarvis's directions, wondering how he would feel about each. Anger, annoyance, disappointment... The worst he could think of was if Bruce just didn't care because he didn't think Peter was important enough to get upset over. His stomach squirmed. Part of him knew that he was being unfair and overly pessimistic, he tried to hang onto that thought. 

He paused before walking into the living room, after Jarvis informed him that he'd arrived. He took off his mask and nervously smoothed his hair out. The mask was good for fighting crime, it hid his identity and let him feel more courageous than he was. As much as he would have liked to hide behind it right now, he knew it wasn't fair. He made a mistake, he could face the consequences.

Peter straightened his back, took a deep breath, and walked in. Bruce was sitting on the couch, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and the destroyed pants still around his waist. He had his head buried in his hands, and didn't seem to notice that Peter had come in.

Peter felt his throat go dry and couldn't think of something to say. When he couldn't even think of a sarcastic comment about that, he gave up and just cleared his throat. Bruce looked up at him, and he felt his stomach sink. It was just coming down from being the Hulk that had him looking so haggard, right?

Bruce's expression was confusion at first, he wasn't really sure who to expect, and he froze when he saw Peter. They stayed like that for a moment, staring at each other, neither knowing what to say. Eventually Bruce managed, “Peter, you're...”

“I'm fine,” he offered with a small half smile, running a hand through his hair and wincing slightly. Okay, maybe a little less than fine, his entire front felt like a giant bruise- but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. Bruce still paled, an impressive feat given how pale he had been to begin with, at the flinch and Peter waved his hands quickly. “I am, I promise, really.”

“Has a doctor told you that?” Bruce asked quietly.

“No...” Peter admitted, “I can't really stick around for SHIELD's medical team to look me over, and I don't really see a proper doctor unless I know I broke something...”

“Can I take a look?”

Peter swallowed nervously, fidgeting slightly at the thought of Bruce examining him before nodding. Bruce stood up, pulling the blanket together and keeping his pants supported, if a slight trace of pink covered his cheeks, neither of them said anything about it. He walked over and hesitated, “Where...?”

“You don't remember what happened?” Peter asked, confused.

Bruce shook his head, “I rarely remember that much, although it's getting better, I just remember...” he trailed off, squeezing his eyes shut and taking a deep breath before opening them and giving Peter a sad smile, “Where are you hurt?”

“Mostly my chest”, he said quietly, lifting the shirt of his suit up and wincing slightly. It was bruising, mottled blues and purples, not exactly what he'd have liked to look like the first time Bruce saw his chest, especially not when he was trying to reassure the man that he wasn't hurt. He shoved that thought away as he finished taking his shirt off.

Bruce looked over his chest, falling into his clinical mode. He looked it over carefully at first, before gently touching it, “Tell me if anything I do hurts.”

“Well, it _is_ a giant bruise, doc,” Peter pointed out with a weak laugh, feeling his face go red and hoping Bruce wouldn't notice. It really didn't hurt, though, his hands moved gently, occasionally putting pressure in one area and then another, frowning to himself. His hands were warm and just slightly rough from calluses, and Peter couldn't help but just stare at the almost reverent way that Bruce was looking over every inch of his chest. His mind wandered to the thought of this happening under different circumstances and he shivered slightly.

Bruce jerked his hand away at that, looking at him with concern, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine,” Peter said awkwardly, looking down and rubbing the back of his neck, both embarrassed and disappointed that the contact had stopped.

“Alright...” Bruce said uncertainly, moving away, “I don't think anything is broken or there's any internal bleeding... You may still want to see a proper doctor, though.”

“I've got super healing, I'll be fine,” Peter insisted with the most confident grin he could manage. It wasn't very impressive. He put his shirt back on. “It was my fault, you know.”

“What?” Bruce asked, frowning.

“I'd yelled at him,” Peter explained with a shrug, “I don't think he even meant to hurt me, he just doesn't really know how to use his words so he got me to stop the only way he knows how.”

“Why did you yell at him?” Bruce asked softly, face expressionless.

Peter looked down, “Because I was mad at you and ended up taking it out on him.”

“You're... mad at me?” Bruce asked, shrinking into himself slightly.

“Yeah, a little...” Peter said with a shrug, “I mean, I understand, I get why you don't want to work with some kid, b--”

“That's not it,” Bruce interrupted more urgently than he'd meant to. He bit his lip afterwards, but Peter was looking at him uncertainly. “Peter, it's not that I don't... I _can't_ , what happened today just proves it, it's too dangerous.”

“What happened today proves that it's not!” Peter snapped, “I _yelled_ at him, I _provoked_ him and all I got was some damn bruising!”

“What if it's worse next time?” Bruce asked, “What if he seriously hurts you? I can't...” Bruce buried his face in his hand, shaking slightly, “I can't live with that, Peter, I just can't.”

Peter felt the anger he'd been feeling vanish and he put a gentle arm on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce just shrugged it off, shrinking into himself more.

“Why is it that you're willing to take that risk with Star-- the others?” Peter asked sullenly.

“It's different with Tony,” Bruce said quietly, sitting down on the couch, “He was one of the biggest designers for the Hulkbusters- the only one who actually figured out anything effective. I've seen the plans, some of that technology went into his suit, if he needed to he could take the Hulk out.”

“You... you think he would... kill you?” Peter asked quietly, a sense of horror creeping over him, “Has he told you that?”

“No, he hasn't, but he doesn't need to,” Bruce explained, looking up at him with a sad smile, “It's the only reason I can stay here, the only reason Hulk can work with the team. It would be too dangerous otherwise.”

“You don't have to live like this.”

“Yes, I do.”

Peter stared at him for a moment, trying to think of some way to communicate how wrong this was. He didn't think it would matter, though. With a deep breath he walked over to where Bruce was sitting and wrapped his arms around him, quietly saying, “You don't deserve this, Bruce, but I know you won't believe me.”

Bruce froze up slightly, surprised by the contact, before smiling sadly. When the younger man broke the hug and stood up, Bruce sighed and said, “Peter...” but he just gave Bruce a hurt look before putting his mask back on and walking out of the room. 

* * *

 

Peter walked down a few hallways in what he had intended to be the direction of the elevator. He wasn't really sure where he was planning to go, how he was planning to leave the tower, but somehow the elevator seemed like the right place to go. 

It wasn't long before he decided he was lost, and he smacked the wall with a growl. It was a fairly gentle blow and completely controlled, he didn't want to do damage, but it helped a bit. The thought that maybe Steve was onto something with the punching bags crossed his mind.

“Try not to dent the wall, you couldn't afford the repairs,” Tony suggested smugly, leaning against the end of the wall that Peter had been walking towards.

Peter glared at him, although with his mask on the effect was lost. “What do you want, Stark?”

“Jarvis told me that you seemed to be lost- and I can't have you poking around anywhere you shouldn't be,” he replied, silently adding that poking around where he shouldn't be is just what had caused this whole damn problem. He smirked, “So I decided to show you the way out.”

“I was going to ask Jarvis for directions,” Peter replied flatly. It was the truth. He just needed to calm down before he tried getting home. Swinging across the city while this angry probably wasn't in his- or anyone's- best interests.

“Well, now you have the honor of being personally led by _the_ Tony Stark.” Tony insisted, walking down the hallway past Peter. Peter stayed where he was, and Tony gave him an annoyed look, backtracking slightly to grab his arm. Peter shoved the hand off a bit too roughly.

“I'd rather have Jarvis tell me,” he said icily.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him, somewhere between amused and annoyed, “I don't really care what you'd “rather”, webhead, my house my rules- I know you got used to getting away with things thanks to Bruce,” he smirked, “But seeing as you messed that up--”

“Don't start.”

“Oh, come on, don't be like that, just because Bruce likes me better,” Tony replied smugly, unphased.

“At least I know he's not just around me as some sort of fucked up suicide attempt,” Peter snapped, wincing slightly at the curse. Living with Aunt May had ensured that he'd never gotten into the habit of using them.

Tony stared at him incredulously, “In what world did that make sense?”

“This one-” Peter growled, poking Tony in the chest, “Bruce only stays here because he expects you to break out the Hulkbusters at any second, so don't start with me about him.”

“How do you know about those?” Tony asked quietly, the grin disappearing from his face.

“How do you think?” Peter asked, glaring at Tony. The other man looked away slightly, his gaze far away. After a moment without any response, Peter turned around and stalked down the hallway.

“Jarvis?” Tony asked quietly, after the footsteps had fully faded.

“Yes, sir?” the AI replied softly.

“Is what he said true?”

“Which part, sir?”

Tony sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. Jarvis knew exactly which part he meant, the AI always did, which meant he was avoiding the question. Tony rubbed his face with his hands, “Thank you, Jarvis.”


	8. Chapter 8

Tony frowned down at the glass in his hand. This was how he usually handled his problems, drowning them in alcohol. It had served him well so far, for certain definitions of well. His only other coping mechanisms involved throwing himself into work, forgetting food or sleep until the deprivation dulled everything. That wasn't a very fast solution, though, and had become much more difficult since Bruce had started taking a personal interest in his well being.

Tony's stomach clenched at that thought and he brought the glass to his lips, pausing before actually taking a drink. He lowered the glass again.

“ _Sir, Captain Rogers has asked me to inform you--_ ”

“I know, Jarvis,” Tony cut the AI off, rubbing his face with his free hand, “I just don't care about another team bonding session.”

“ _But, sir_ \--” Jarvis began, tone long suffering. Steve had arranged for everyone to meet an hour ago, and JARVIS had ended up spending the whole hour requesting that Tony actually attend as the other Avengers asked him. At first Tony actually gave a few excuses and promises to be there as soon as he was done.

“Not interested,” Tony insisted, continuing to eye the liquid in his hand.

The sound of a heavy sigh caused him to turn around. Bruce was standing there, and Tony managed to catch the look of disappointment before it was replaced with casual interest. Tony gripped the glass tighter, still not quite managing to bring it to his lips and actually drink it.

“Tony, it's been _2 days_ ,” Bruce said, exasperated, “2 days since anyone has seen you, please, what's going on?”

He shook his head, setting the glass on the table and grimacing. The sound of approaching footsteps were followed by a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Bruce standing there with a sympathetic smile.

“Why are you here?” Tony snapped, crossing his arms.

“It's been _two days_ , Tony, you can't just--”

“No, not here like that I mean why are you _here_ , why are you in this Tower at all, why are you with the Avengers?” he demanded.

Bruce shrank back slightly, “It's the only way I can do good and limit the risk of the Hulk.”

“Because you think that if Hulk went out of control, that we'd- no, that _I_ would--” he cut himself off, turning around and bracing his arms against the table, shaking his head.

“Did Peter talk to you?” Bruce asked quietly.

“Is it true?” Tony asked, his voice even softer, “Do you really think I'd use the Hulkbuster technology against you?”

“Yes,” he said quietly, “Tony, it would be the right thing to do.”

“I'm not that guy anymore!” Tony insisted, rubbing his face, “I'm not... I made that because I was _stupid_ , I didn't _care_ , I didn't even bother to find out what Hulk _was_ , I didn't... I never would have...”

Bruce wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “It's okay, Tony, I'm not mad at you for it.”

“It's not okay,” he grumbled.

“I need to be contained sometimes, the Hulk has to be able to be stopped,” Bruce said quietly.

“ _Not like that!_ ” Tony snarled, turning around and placing a hand on each shoulder. He stared at Bruce with a pained expression, “He can be contained humanely, Bruce, but that's never what it was about. You didn't deserve any of what I did to you.”

Bruce smiled gently, “It wasn't your fault, Tony, you aren't the one who used it- I know you wouldn't hurt me unless you absolutely had to.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I'm here because I trust you to do what you need to, but only if you really do need to.”

They smiled at each other for a moment, then Tony leaned forward and pressed his lips against Bruce's. There was no fire or hunger behind it, just a gentle and somewhat hesitant brushing of lips. 

Bruce's eyes widened and he froze up for a moment before he managed to process what was going on, he pressed his hands against Tony's chest and shoved him backwards.

“You're drunk,” he said nervously.

“No, I'm not,” Tony said, taking Bruce's hands in his own, “I promise, haven't swallowed a drop- you can ask Jarvis and do a blood test.”

“Then... why would you...” Bruce licked his lips, looking down.

Tony lifted his chin up with a smirk, “I kissed you because I wanted to, that's not too complex a concept.” He leaned forward, although he didn't go for another kiss yet, “And as long as you don't have any objections, I'd like to do it again.”

Bruce took a large step back, “Tony, that's just, no, this is a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“Relationships and I just... it won't work, okay, please,” he insisted, running a hand through his hair, the other still out stretched to keep Tony at a distance. The other man, getting the message, took a step back and frowned.

“Are you not into me? Because I'm a big boy, you won't hurt my feelings if you tell me.”

“I'm not into anyone,” Bruce said nervously, “With the Hulk, it just can't--”

“Oh no, you do _not_ get to use that as an excuse for this!”

Bruce flinched, “Please, Tony, I'm dangerous, I couldn't live with myself if I hurt someone...”

“You just said you trusted me!” Tony half shouted, failing in his attempts to maintain his cool. 

“I don't trust _me_!”

It was at this point that Tony noticed that they had been moving gradually towards the door, Bruce backing up and Tony closing the gap. He noticed this because Bruce flung the door open and disappeared through it before Tony could say anything else. He could have pursued him, of course, but he decided not to.

Instead, he trudged back to the table he had been standing in front of before. He picked the glass up, downing it in one gulp.

* * *

 

It was a good thing that Tony hadn't followed him. As soon as the door closed behind him, Bruce leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths. He wasn't sure how to feel. He had never imagined that Tony was actually interested in him like that. Of course, he wasn't really sure how Tony _was_ interested in him- did he want an actual relationship? Just casual sex? Bruce wasn't sure which would be worse. 

Eventually his head stopped spinning. He shook his head, pulling himself off of the wall and making his way to the kitchen. Hopefully hot tea would help him sort out his thoughts.

Unfortunately, the kitchen was not empty. Clint Barton was there, polishing his bow. Bruce shuffled over to the counter and set the kettle on, trying to be unnoticed.

“So, what's got your panties in a twist?” Clint asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bruce sighed, turning around and managing a smile, “I don't know what you mean.”

“Uh huh,” Clint raised an eyebrow, “Couldn't have anything to do with the fight you had with your boyfriend?”

Bruce's eyes widened, “How did you know?!”

Clint just chuckled. “Ha, see, I _knew_ you were dating that kid...”

“Wait, kid?”

“Yeah, that kid you've been going out with- the one I'm not supposed to know is Spiderman?” Clint asked, frowning, “Who did you _think_ I meant?”

“Peter and I aren't- He's _not_ a- That's ridicu- How do you know _that_?”

“I'm a spy, it's what I do,” he said with a shrug, “So who _did_ you think I meant?”

Bruce chewed his lip before sighing and walking over to the table, sitting down across from Clint. He leaned forward, “Tony just kissed me.”

Clint raised his eyebrows, “Damn, I didn't think he'd ever actually get the balls to do it.”

“What?” Bruce asked, furrowing his brows.

Clint snorted, “C'mon, he's been after you like a dog with a bone since the Chitauri.” He raised an eyebrow, “Have you really not noticed?”

“That's just what he's like with everyone,” Bruce muttered, shaking his head, “It's Tony- it doesn't mean anything.”

“Uh huh,” Clint said, shrugging, “Well, it's none of my business anyways and I might as well head off since I'm finished up here.” He gathered up his things and stood up, heading towards the door, “Enjoy your tea.”

* * *

Peter took a break from superhero doing and, well, everything that weekend. He just went out into the city to take pictures, trying to process everything. He was also giving his chest a chance to heal, Hulk packed a pretty mean punch, but he'd been hurt on the job plenty of times and rarely felt the need to take a break.

All he really wanted was to forget about everything for a few days, to find a way to move on.

He felt like he was starting to make progress when, at the end of his biology class, his professor asked him to stay after class. Dread flooded him as he tried to come up with some reason for this. It was too early in the semester for him to be failing, they hadn't even done anything that was graded, he hadn't even managed to memorize her name. There weren't any _good_ reasons he could be getting called out...

“Do you have a few minutes?” she asked when he approached her, “I'd like to speak with you in my office.”

The knot in Peter's stomach tightened, “Okay... yeah, okay...”

“Thank you,” she said with a small smile. He followed her up a set of stairs and down the hall to a room labeled 'Elizabeth Samson, Cellular Biology'. He closed the door after himself and sat down when she gestured for him to. She glanced at a picture on her desk that was facing away from him then looked him directly in the eyes. “Are you the same Peter Parker who takes all those pictures of the Avengers?”

“Yeah...” he admitted sheepishly, shrugging, “Right place in the right time, I guess.”

Professor Samson raised an eyebrow, “Is that _really_ all?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, laughing nervously.

She bit her lip, “Look, I wouldn't usually ask this, but... Is there any chance you know how I could track down the Hulk?”

Peter tried to pretend that a giant red flag hadn't just went off, struggling to keep his expression mildly curious, “Any reason?”

“I need to know that Br-- that he's okay,” she said quietly, “I can't tell you anything more than that.”

"Aren't the news clips proof enough of that?" he asked with a forced laugh. Considering that the identity of the Hulk's alter-ego had been kept a secret, her slip of the tongue only made Peter more concerned.

She looked at her desk and narrowed her eyes, "No, no it's not."

Peter frowned, trying to think about how to handle this situation. “Will it effect my grade if I can't?”

She laughed gently, “No, don't worry.”

Peter ran a hand through his hair, “That's a good thing, you know, because I... I don't have any way to get in touch with any of them.”

“Oh,” the professor said softly, leaning back into her chair and looking out the window sadly. She shook her head and smiled at him, “Thank you for your time, Peter, I look forward to seeing you in class Wednesday.” 

“No problem, have a good, uh, Tuesday, professor,” he replied with an awkward grin before slipping out the door. 

* * *

 

Peter walked out of the building a bit more quickly than he meant to. He was trying to look casual, but it really wasn't working. He stepped out onto the green and looked around, stepping to get out of the way of the students hurrying in to make it to their class.

Part of him expected there to be secret service men or black cars with tinted windows waiting for him. Not a rational part of him, of course, but he was still shaken up. There hadn't been any sign of immediate threat, and even if there was he trusted the Avengers to be able to handle it, and so he did his best to go about the day as usual.

When he finally got home, he took out his cell phone and paused. His thumb was hovering over the phone number that he kept telling himself he was going to delete. Now he was glad he didn't. Stealing himself for the conversation, he pressed the button.

Peter wasn't sure whether or not to be happy when the call went to voice mail. He licked his lip during the message- a generic one that informed him of the phone number he dialed but betrayed no other information- as he waited for the beep.

“Hey, um, Bruce? It's Peter, look, please call me back it's important,” he paused, “I swear, this has nothing to do with... what happened, you really need to get back to me, okay?”

Peter hung up the phone and sat down on his bed, trying to be more concerned about the potential threat and less concerned by how pathetic and desperate he must sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who is still with me after that long break! I really appreciate it! Life just got away from me, I'm afraid.
> 
> (I also was honestly having a really hard time figuring out where to go with this.)


	9. Chapter 9

Peter left another message concerning the conversation before his aunt called him down for dinner. He did his best not to act suspicious, but after the fifth time he glanced at his phone in as many minutes, he really couldn't be surprised that she asked if anything was wrong. 

“No- I mean, um,maybe, I don't know yet, I'm trying to find out,” he admitted as honestly as he could manage.

Aunt May raised an eyebrow at him, “Is this one of those things you can't talk to me about?”

“Yes, I'm sorry.”

“I do understand, Peter,” she said with a sad smile. She shook her head, “Is it something you can address right now?”

“I guess not, I'm waiting for someone to get back to me... I don't really expect anything, though,” he admitted sheepishly.

“Then you can put your phone away until after dinner- it will ring if you do get a call,” she pointed out simply, with the same tone she'd used when he was younger and tried to bring toys or books to the dinner table. Peter smiled at her, slipping his phone into his pocket.

* * *

 

After dinner, he made an honest attempt to do school work. He kept glancing back at his phone, though, and half an hour later he tried making one last call. He hung up when it went to voice mail and grabbed his suit.

As quickly as he could manage, he was at Stark Tower, trying to figure out how to get in. It occurred to him then that this was a very poorly thought out plan on his part. He didn't really have clearance to get in, and at best he was likely to end up arrested. Arrested, now that he thought about it, was actually one of the better scenarios here.

Peter took a deep breath and just tried to open the door on one of the patios, it seemed to go into a lounge of some sort, and that seemed like the best bet. To his surprise, the door opened for him. He poked his head in and frowned.

“They should double check their security,” he muttered, taking a hesitant step in.

“ _Your clearance still stands from your time working with Dr. Banner,_ ” JARVIS informed him tersely, “ _If you were not cleared to be here, you would not be here._ ”

Peter smiled to himself upon hearing that, then remembered why he was there in the first place. “Is Br-, uh, _Dr. Banner_ here? I need to speak with him.”

“ _Dr. Banner, and the rest of the team, are in the common room having a movie night._ ”

“Great,” he mumbled, before straightening up and putting on his most confident voice, “This is concerning an urgent matter- please alert him.” 

“ _Of course._ ”

 

* * *

 

Some days, Steve wasn't sure why he even bothered trying to get the team to bond. Clint, Natasha, and Thor all had military training and were well aware of what needed to happen for a mission to run smoothly. Tony wasn't going to be any more of a team player than he wanted to no matter how much Steve tried. In fact, Steve noticed that trying often got the exact opposite result he wanted from Tony. And Bruce, well... Even Bruce wasn't sure exactly how much his feelings impacted the Hulk, and trying to get the doctor to be comfortable in a group was a nearly futile attempt. In fairness, Bruce was getting more comfortable one-on-one with each Avenger, but whenever they got together as a group, he ended up on the edges and never added in to conversations.

Today was one of the times that Steve asked himself that question.

While Tony and Bruce usually sat next to each other and made sarcastic jabs at any of the scientific inaccuracies of the films, today they were sat on opposite sides of the room, glancing at each other while the other wasn't looking. Clint was “helping” the situation by throwing popcorn at Tony and waggling his eyebrows while Natasha rolled her eyes. Steve was well aware that something was going on.

He was also certain he didn't really want to know what.

JARVIS interrupted them after the tenth time that Clint had manged to hit Tony squarely between the eyes with a piece of popcorn, which was a blessing as Tony had whipped around and looked like he was about to start something.

“ _Forgive the interruption. Dr. Banner, your attention is required in the upstairs lounge._ ”

“...What?” Bruce asked, looking around to check that he wasn't hearing things. He furrowed his brows, “Why am I needed there? What's going on?”

“ _Spider-Man wishes to speak with you,_ ” JARVIS replied, “ _He claims the matter is urgent._ ”

“Urgent my ass,” Tony grumbled, “Tell him that whatever it is can wait until the end of _Galaxy Quest_.”

“Tony...” Bruce said with a sigh, rubbing his forehead as he stood up, “Thank you, JARVIS, I'll be right there.”

“I'm going with you, after what happened last time--” Tony started, standing up as well.

“I can handle it, Tony, it's fine,” Bruce insisted.

Steve frowned, “I could go with you if you'd like. I may be able to help with whatever's going on.”

Bruce grimaced, “Sure, great, why don't we all go, make it a party?”

Although that was enough for Steve to rethink the idea, Tony stubbornly followed as Bruce left the room. Thinking it was best not to leave the two of them alone, Steve ended up going as well, and Natasha and Clint shared a look before agreeing to go along to see how it went.

By the time they reached their destination, Bruce gave up any hope of at least keeping them out of the room.

* * *

 

This is how Peter found himself faced with almost the entire Avengers, suddenly feeling very much that he should have just left it at the voicemail and hoped for the best.

Bruce took a deep breath, determinedly refusing to acknowledge anyone in the room besides Peter, and managed a smile, “What is it?”

“I...” he started awkwardly. The reason he was here now sounded very childish and paranoid. He was there because his professor made a slip of the tongue that may or may not have meant anything. Maybe she was just a rabid Hulk fan. That happened. It wasn't the first time someone tried to use him to get access to their favorite superhero. Again he was immensely grateful that he was doing this in costume so no one could see that his face was as red as his mask.

“I just... I think...” he tried to focus on Bruce and pretend no one else was there. It wasn't easy, considering that Tony kept making snide remarks that were cut off by looks from Steve. He closed his eyes, “My professor took me aside and asked about the Hulk- almost calling you Bruce- I thought you should know.”

He cracked his eyes open in the silence that followed. Even Tony looked concerned by that revelation. Bruce frowned, “Are you sure?”

“I was more sure before everyone showed up,” he admitted with a nervous laugh that drew an audible scoff from Tony.

“What's your professor's name?”

“Professor Samson,” he said quietly.

“I know that name...” Bruce said, now pacing slightly. He stopped suddenly, “That's the name of the guy Betty was living with when...” He turned to look at his team, trying not to look too panicked.

Steve put a hand on his shoulder. “Do you think she would have told him?” he asked gently.

“I don't know. It wouldn't have been hard to figure out- and I'm sure Ross would have if she didn't,” he replied, “I don't know why he'd want to know, though...”

“Um--” Peter began to interrupt, although he was quickly cut off.

“Do you know his full name? I can have JARVIS run a search on him,” Tony said.

“His first name was Leonard, that's all I remember,” he said quietly, shaking his head. 

A screen appeared on the window, with the picture and information of the Leonard Samsons who could fit the description. “ _Sir? Are any of these the man in question?_ ”

“Yes,” Bruce replied, pointing, “That one.”

Peter shook his head, “Look, can you guys please--”

“Good- JARVIS, pull up all the information you can on this guy,” Tony interrupted, shooting a glare at Peter.

“We'll contact SHIELD to find out if there has been any activity that could be related to this,” Natasha added. She and Clint slipped out of the room.

“I'll go review what JARVIS finds,” Tony added, starting towards the door. He paused, “Unless you want me to stay.”

“I'll be fine,” Bruce promised him with a small smile. Tony nodded doubtfully before disappearing.

“Is there anything I can do?” Steve asked.

“You could listen to me!” Peter shouted. The two men turned to look at him, and he shrunk into himself. “Sorry- but you've got the wrong person.”

Bruce frowned, “What?”

“My professor's a woman,” he said awkwardly, “I tried to tell you, but you all kind of got ahead of yourselves...”

“A woman...” Bruce said quietly, running a hand through his hair, “Do you know her first name?”

“Elizabeth.”

Bruce closed his eyes, taking several calming breaths before nodding. He took out his wallet and opened it to reveal a weathered picture, he turned it so that Peter could look at it.

“That's her, I think,” Peter agreed.

“Betty...” Bruce said quietly, running a hand over the picture. He smiled sadly, “I guess they did get married... I'm glad.”

“I guess we sent out the alarm sooner than we needed to,” Steve said quietly, “I'll go tell the others.” Peter waived nervously as he left the room. Once he was gone, he took off his mask.

“I'm sorry,” Peter said gently, “I didn't know who she was, I thought...”

Bruce smiled slightly, “I understand- someone knowing my identity is a pretty big deal, most people who know that probably don't have good intentions. I'm glad you told me." 

Peter smiled back at him, “I tried to call but you didn't answer...”

“Call?” Bruce frowned, then chuckled, “Right, that phone Tony gave me- sorry, I completely forget that I have it. Being in the tower so much, everyone who'd need to get ahold of me knows how to.”

“Oh, okay, I'll remember that,” Peter said with a shrug, biting his lip to avoid looking upset by that information. He ran a hand through his hair, “So- what should I tell her? She seemed really worried about whether or not you're being treated okay.”

“I'm not surprised,” Bruce said with a sad smile, “She knows how people have treated me in the past, she's probably afraid that I've gotten myself locked in a cage- only allowed out when they need the Hulk.”

“Has that happened before?” Peter asked.

“Almost,” Bruce said, “A few people have tried.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It's not going to happen again,” Bruce said, “That's what matters.” He shook himself and put his wallet away, “Could you take me to see her?”

“Yeah, okay, I'll tell you when her office hours are or whatever,” he said with a shrug.

Bruce grinned, “I'll make sure to actually keep my phone on hand this time.”

“Good, I'll, um, talk to you later, then,” Peter agreed, “I should probably head back, though.”

“Oh, yeah, that's true,” Bruce agreed, rubbing the back of his neck, “Be careful on your way back.”

“Hey, I'm always careful,” he said before putting the mask back on, “See you around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who commented, I just wanted to let you know that I Really do appreciate them! :)


	10. Chapter 10

“Now, when we turn to this model--”

There was nothing really special about that day. Her schedule was completely routine, she didn't have any special plans, and there was nothing to indicate that something important was going on. At first she didn't even think about the fact that someone was sneaking into her class after the fact- it was a lecture of over 50 students, someone was late nearly every day. She glanced over, planning to give the required “disappointed teacher” look, nothing that would trip her up. It wasn't even unusual for Peter Parker to be the one sneaking in late. And then she saw who was with him.

He had a ridiculous baseball cap on and kept his head down. No one would spare a second glance for the man. She knew who it was immediately.

A murmur ran through the class and she realized that she needed to continue.

“Ah, as I was saying...”

Elizabeth Samson nee Ross considered herself a fairly put-together person. She had faced things that would leave most people running for the hills and come out a better woman for it. It was a testament to just how good she was at her job that she was able to continue on with the lecture with only a small pause. 

* * *

 

“Professor Samson!”

She looked up as she hastily packed up to leave, one of her students was trying to get her attention. Evan Daniels, a pretty decent student. She looked to the back of the room in time to see Bruce disappearing out the door.

The rational part of her mind insisted that he was likely there to see her. He came in with Peter after she'd spoken to her student about him. There was no reason for him to sit in on a class of hers and just disappear- although she liked to think she was an engaging professor, he knew this stuff in his sleep. Besides which, she'd grown since they had last met and wasn't the same girl constantly running after him- she didn't _want_ to be that person anymore.

But the irrational, emotional part of her mind just saw her only chance slipping through her fingers. It took everything in her power not to just shout at the boy and storm off. Instead, she put on the kindest smile she could manage.

“Evan?” The boy just looked at her- good, she had been right about the name- and she continued, “I'm _very_ sorry, but something big just came up and I need to rush out of here, email me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. We can set up a time to meet if you want.”

“But--” he started to object, but she had grabbed her briefcase and was down the steps of the stage before he could continue.

When she got into the hallway, he was nowhere to be seen. She bit her lip to avoid calling out his name like some lovesick teenager. Instead, she took a deep breath and held her head as high as she could manage while she briskly walked to her office. 

* * *

 

“This was a mistake,” Bruce muttered, pacing the hallway of the biology department.

Peter hovered a few feet away from him, rocking on his feet and not saying anything. It was the same throughout his class. Every few minutes, Bruce would mutter that and then make to leave. Most of the time, though, he just stared at Peter's professor, completely entranced. Peter had been completely unable to concentrate, trying to ignore the ache in his chest that Bruce was looking at someone else like that and that Bruce was only anywhere near Peter so he could see her.

Bruce had explained who Betty was on the way over, although Peter could have guessed from the way Bruce still carried a picture of her in his wallet. If he'd known who she was, Peter wasn't entirely sure he would have told Bruce. He probably would have, but at least he could have braced himself for it.

Peter wasn't going to tell him that it was a mistake and he should leave. But if Bruce ever actually made up his mind to leave,well, he wasn't about to stop him.

“I should just--” the last word that Bruce was planning on speaking got lost under another outburst.

“ _Bruce!_ ”

Professor Samson- Betty, but Peter doubted they were on a first name basis just because Peter and Bruce were... what? Friends? Acquaintances?- stood at the end of the hallway. Her mouth was open, the corners twitching upwards, her eyes moist with tears. Bruce stared at her with a very similar expression. The two stood there, just staring, as if neither knew how to react. Then, at the same moment, they both just moved towards each other. When the two finally met, they embraced and devolved into a mess of laughter, tears, and quiet comments before they remembered where they were. Professor Samson smoothed her suit and wiped tears away from her eyes before gesturing for him to come into her office.

The door shut behind them and Peter just stood in the hallway.

“I'll, uh, I'll just... wait... here...” he mumbled into thin air, trudging over to the nearest bench. He pulled out his cell phone and tried to look like he was just any other student waiting to speak to a professor. 

* * *

 

“Please, sit down,” Betty said breathlessly, motioning to one of the chairs across from her desk. She sat in the other one, deciding that it was better not to have this conversation over a desk.

“Thank you,” Bruce murmured, walking over to the chair she had indicated. As he took his seat, Betty found herself staring at him, half expecting him to disappear.

They sat in silence for a moment, just looking at each other and remembering their last meeting and thinking of all the time that had passed. Bruce finally broke the silence, “Your lecture was wonderful, you're an amazing teacher.”

Betty blushed, “Thank you. I _was_ a bit distracted today, though.”

“I'm sorry about that,” he replied with a small laugh.

“Well, next time you should warn me before you drop in,” she pointed out with a grin. Another silence settled as she brought up the possibility of a 'next time'. Betty looked down at her lap for a moment before looking up at him, “You _are_ okay, right? You aren't being...” she let the sentence fall, he knew exactly what her fears were.

“I'm not,” he promised, reaching over and placing a hand over hers, “Thank you for your concern- but I promise you that I'm safe and with the Avengers of my own volition,” he took his hand back and looked down, “of _our_ own volition, actually.”

“Oh...” she said quietly, “I'm glad. I'm so happy that you don't have to run anymore, I always worried about you.”

“I thought about you a lot,” Bruce admitted.

“Why didn't you find me after you joined the team?” Betty asked softly, watching his face.

Bruce whinced at the question, refusing to meet her eye. “After everything I put you through...” He looked up at her, meeting her gaze, “I was afraid to face you, I'm sorry.”

She smiled at him, “I understand, I just... I wish you had let me know you were okay somehow.” Bruce nodded, but didn't say anything. Betty sighed, looking around her office, “I thought about this day too often... Every time I saw the Hulk on TV, I wondered if I would get a phone call or letter or visit from you. And when I didn't, I was afraid it was because you weren't free to contact me.”

“I'm sorry,” he repeated.

“I already told you I understand,” she reminded him, shaking her head. She sighed heavily, “I don't regret helping you- I still would. If you needed it, I would do whatever I can to help you,” she looked him in the eyes when she said it, before turning and looking around her office, “But I made a mistake when I ran away with you.”

Bruce nodded, smiling sadly, “I thought you might say that...” He took her hands in his, “I'll never stop loving you, Betty, but I'm so glad that you've moved on with your life.”

Betty smiled back at him, “I'm so glad you understand. I'll never stop loving you, either, but it was never meant to be.”

Bruce bit his lip, biting back the stream of 'what if's that plagued him every night. He truly was glad she had moved on, but a part of him would always mourn what was lost. Betty watched him for a moment before nudging his chin up with one hand and smiling at him.

“Bruce?” she asked softly, and his eyes flicked over her face, “Please promise me something.”

“Anything,” he said gently.

“Don't put me- us- on a pedestal,” she said quietly, “My biggest problem with moving on was that I had convinced myself we had had the perfect relationship before the explosion. I kept comparing my present to an idyllic past that didn't exist. It was a good relationship, and who knows what would have been, but don't forget that we had our fights and problems.”

He smiled at her, “I promise I won't.” 

* * *

 

They spent about half an hour talking. Bruce told her a bit about her travels, about what it was like on the Avengers. Betty talked about her research and Leonard and revealed she was 4 months pregnant. It was still a bit tense, they had too much history without nearly enough closure for it to be anything else, but as the conversation went on they started feeling a bit more like old friends. Bruce left with the promise to keep in touch, closing the door behind him and letting out a long sigh.

He glanced around, reminding himself of the way out, when he noticed that Peter was still sitting on the bench, fiddling with his cell phone. Bruce smiled softly and walked over, putting a hand on his shoulder to announce his presence. Peter started slightly, turning to see who it was.

“Oh, hey,” he mumbled, hastily switching off his phone and stuffing it in his pocket, “How did it go?”

“As well as it could have,” Bruce said quietly, “You didn't have to wait for me.”

Peter just shrugged for an answer. “You probably need to get going, I won't keep you.”

“Actually...” Bruce said, burying his hands in his pockets, “I have some time. Would you, um, like to go get a coffee or something?”

Peter watched him for a long moment before the corners of his lips turned up slightly, “Yeah, sure, I would like that.” 

* * *

 

They walked in silence to the cafe that was closest to the campus. It wasn't as awkward as either of them had expected, for a few minutes it was like it had been before. Bruce watched as Peter picked up his order and mixed sugar and cream into it.

“I really do want to apologize,” he said gently as Peter sat down. The younger man looked at him uncertainly and he took a deep breath. “For, well, how I acted... how I've been acting. I just, well, when I'm around you...” he bit his lip, “I tend to act without thinking, which is dangerous for me- but that isn't your problem, it's mine... I shouldn't have taken it out on you.”

Peter took a long sip of his coffee, “You know, there are worse things than letting your guard around sometimes.”

“Letting my guard down tends to end up with the National Guard getting called,” he pointed out with a sad huff of a laugh.

They sat in silence for a moment, Peter just watching him while Bruce got progressively more self-conscious. Eventually he turned his gaze down to his coffee, “You know, I meant it- I can handle it when you lose control, I think I've proven as much. I won't try to make it happen on purpose, but I don't think you need to live in fear of yourself so much.”

“I just can't take that--”

“Chance,” Peter filled in dully, “I know.”

Bruce froze. This wasn't exactly going as planned. He'd genuinely meant the apology and instead he was starting the fight all over again. Bruce swallowed around the lump he hadn't realized had formed in his throat.

“You're right,” Bruce said carefully, staring at his hands, “I'm... being way over cautious. Even if I don't trust myself or...” he left it hanging, they both knew what he meant, “You have proven yourself.” He licked his lips and looked up at Peter's face, “You're one of the people I can trust, I need to start acting like it.”

Peter stared at him in disbelief, a warmth curling into his chest. He had never actually expected Bruce to say he trusted him. After Peter had provoked the Hulk, he had been sure he'd be one of the last people Bruce trusted. He swallowed down the rest of his coffee to cover the silence, trying to think of what to say. Part of him desperately wanted to push the matter, most of him was terrified of losing what he now held.

“I, um, well...” he started, wincing has he stumbled over himself, “Thank you.”

Bruce smiled at him, “There's no need to thank me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “I know you haven't been in the lab since, well... Do you want to get back into that at some point? If you're not too busy, I mean.” 

“I'm free now,” he replied a bit too eagerly. He ducked his head to hide the flush that threatened to creep over his cheeks, but Bruce just laughed appreciatively.

* * *

It was not as comfortable as it had been. Every few minutes, Bruce would realize he'd found his way into Peter's personal space, jerked out of it, then had to force himself to relax again. It felt good to be able to work with the older man again, though. After an hour, Peter finally accepted that he had other things he needed to do, and left with the promise that they'd do it again soon.

In the hallway outside of Bruce's lab, he finally let himself grin like a complete idiot over how well things turned out. He turned the corner and found the elevator opening and Tony walking out of it, mid-conversation with his AI. Peter froze, and Tony stopped mid-sentence when he saw the younger man. His eyes narrowed.

“ _What_ are _you_ doing _here_?” he snapped.

“ _Bruce_ invited me,” Peter replied curtly, “We got some lab work done.”

Tony walked over to him and scoffed, “I thought he was done playing _babysitter_. Were you mixing baking soda and vinegar volcanos?”

“If you want to know what we're doing- just ask Bruce if you two are so close,” Peter snapped. He began to walk over to the elevator, but Tony held out an arm to stop him.

Tony looked him up and down for a moment, “Yeah, see, I don't really know what you expect is going on with this little _arrangement_ , but all you're doing is taking advantage of Bruce's hospitality. The guy feels bad for you, he's just taking _pity_ on you- and it's getting really old seeing you hounding him like a damn puppy.”

Peter stiffened, “And how are you not taking advantage of the fact that Bruce doesn't feel safe anywhere else? Do you really think that he'd stay with you if he had the option?”

“Please,” Tony sneered, “I can offer him anything he could ever wanted.” He gestured in the direction came from, “State of the art, private laboratory that's a scientist's wet dream? Yeah, all me. What do you have to offer him that can compete with that?” When Peter glanced away, he smirked, “Yeah, that's right.” Tony leaned closer to him and dropped his voice, “Here's a secret for you- I'm smarter than you, I'm more successful than you'll ever be, I'm sure as hell better looking. I am better than you in every way.”

For a moment, Peter wanted to crumple and admit defeat. Then something clicked in his mind and he straightened up, glaring at Tony, “If that's true, then why do you think I'm a threat?”

“A threat? Pl--”

“It's true, you hate that Bruce chooses to spend time with me. You can't stand that I managed to get close to him without having to _buy_ his affections,” Peter continued. He realized that he'd started poking the billionaire's chest, decided that was a bad idea, and hastily shoved his hands in his pocket.

They stood in silence, glaring at each other. After a tense moment, Tony grinned darkly. “Well, then, if you really think that he'd choose you over me- why don't you prove it?” Before Peter had the chance to respond, he walked down the hall, purposefully bumping the younger man's shoulder. As soon as he disappeared around the corner, Peter deflated as he realized that he'd just picked a fight with _Tony freaking Stark_. He dragged himself into the elevator, mumbling that he wanted to go to the lobby, as his head spun.


End file.
